PatnaDaily
Columns, Articles, Opinion, Features, Discussion Just a few months back, whenever the term Bihar Model was used, it was in a negative sense. Journalists would use Bihar as a template to exemplify different aspects of despicable behavior. Our great Ashish Bose, a population studies PhD, even coined an epithet Bimaru to lampoon us. Even High court judges would use this to illustrate misdemeanor of different types. In this context, it is heartening to hear of the Bihar model in a positive context.
When news came of Bihar being the second fastest growing state in India, there was all round skepticism, even derision in some quarters. I remember the TV debate in which a geriatric retired member of the Indian Planning Commission tried to deride the suave N. K. Singh by hinting that as the basic data is supplied by the state government, there is reason to doubt it.
A couple of days back, there was a stampede at New Delhi railway station. Two people lost their lives and scores were injured. Alas, those who died were poor and worse, they are Biharis – expendable, stateless in their own country, a people without a voice. And why did they have to loose their lives: not because they were trying anything adventurous, but attempting something as mundane as going home for a vacation.
It is quite amusing to see Indian English newspapers analyze the recent high economic growth of Bihar. http://www.livemint.com/2010/01/03221624/Signs-of-renewal-in-Bihar.html. This change has been coming for more than four years now, but can a jaundiced eye see any better?
The home minister of Goa, a politician by the name of Ravi Naik and belonging to a national party – The Indian National Congress, recently made some rather unprovoked and disparaging remarks about Biharis while intervening in a debate on beggars in Goa.
