The Hindu Business Line : `Leisure-pleasure attitude is bane of Bihar now'

THE laid-back attitude of the people of Bihar has been its bane, as poor governance. But its virgin soil and copious ground water resources can transform Bihar into an agricultural wonder, says Dr Shaibal Gupta, Member Secretary, Asian Development Research Institute, Patna.

Excerpts of his interview to Business Line:

What are the main issues in this election vis-à-vis Bihar?

This is the first national election after the division of Bihar and one finds that some sort of subterranean nationalism has begun to operate for the first time. Many people who were instrumental for the division of the State are unable to defend the division.

Who was mainly responsible for the division?

The entire NDA alliance, including BJP and Mr Nitish Kumar.

Bihar lost whatever little economic and industrial advantage it had by the creation of Jharkhand and was promised a huge compensation package. Did it come at all?

No, we were promised Rs 1,50,000 crore, which never came. Even earlier and in the post-independence period, whatever advantage we had in terms of mineral resources was negated primarily in the form of freight equalisation.

Of the two main fronts - the NDA and the RJD coalition with the Congress, Lok Janshakti and CPM - who has the edge?

The difference between 1999 and now is that then Laloo Yadav was fighting all alone; there was no alliance even with the Congress. In this election Mr Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti will make a big difference.

What about the Vajpayee popularity, vis-à-vis the economic factors and rest of India moving forward while Bihar has remained backward. It cannot be denied that the feel good factor is there at least in some pockets.

The feel good factor is a reality. A certain percentage has moved to a higher income bracket; it may not be a very significant percentage at the national level, but in quantitative terms, it is a huge constituency.

And it is very much related to the capitalist transformation of the economy. Wherever the capitalist transformation has advanced, there you see a whole genesis of a feel good factor constituency.

But is the feel good factor reflected in Bihar?

No. In Bihar, that capitalistic transformation has not taken place in a significant manner.

It has witnessed some scale of development in the agricultural sector, but most of the industrial component of Bihar is now in Jharkhand.

In Bihar, the feel good factor was at a different level and introduced by Laloo when he initiated Mandal.

This was Bihar's feel good; he gave them identity and honour.

He was not the only one, but was at the helm in 1990 when these changes took place. So in Bihar, `feel good' is a relative term.

And yet you say the RJD coalition is a formidable coalition vis-à-vis the NDA? Isn't the JD (U) too a strong force in Bihar?

It is a powerful and organised group with stalwarts at the helm... who brought about the green revolution; they are the vernacular elite-cum-agro capitalists.

So where does Laloo Yadav come?

He is the Cockney, representing the more lumpen sections of the

polity... the most deprived and disabled sections of the population. And each group has evolved not on the basis of economic empowerment but is the product of electoral empowerment.

What issues will dominate this election; the caste factor or economic issues?

It will be a mix of both; earlier the caste issues were more predominant.

Bihar has a 15 per cent Muslim population. How will the Muslims vote?

They will generally be with Laloo Yadav, but will not go overboard as in the past. Lack of economic development in Bihar has affected the Muslims too. He has succeeded in containing riots, etc, but the Muslims are equally worried at the lack of development. Even in the distribution of tickets they feel very let down.

Why are businessmen, industrialists and professionals moving out of Bihar? Is it not due to the culture of extortion?

People are dramatising this issue. Extortion is very much there is Delhi, Mumbai or Haryana. But the difference here is due to the market forces; wherever the people see better returns, they will go there.

Bihar has not played a very dramatic role in economic development or capitalist transformation.

But surely, with good governance things could change. If that happens, what are the economic opportunities available for Bihar's development?

We have one of the best soil and groundwater, quality-wise and in abundance. If we develop our agriculture and diversify it...

You could make it another Punjab?

Punjab is not comparable because we are much better placed than Punjab because it has not only reached a plateau of agricultural development, it is now declining because of the over-chemicalisation of the soil. Our soil is still virgin in the sense that till recently the HYV (high-yielding variety) seeds had not been used in a very widespread manner. With our soil not been contaminated by chemicals, there is a huge opportunity.

So why is it not being exploited?

Historically this is part of the permanent settlement area and unlike in the raiyyatwadi (between the people and the State) settlement here the incentive structure for production could not develop, because any surplus produced by the tenants was taken away by the intermediaries.

Now the intermediaries are not there any more but the mindset of leisure, pleasure, the non-work culture and laid back attitude, developed over the years has remained.

Here people don't have a sense of time.

You may have an appointment with an important Government functionary, and he may be sleeping at that time.

How do you see the future of Bihar? Where does it go from here?

It's a difficult proposition. But I find something positive in the division because for the first time people of the State have started owning Bihar. That ownership was absent, but suddenly they find a bulk of their assets gone.

So what will that transform into?

Into the development of the State. Most of the earlier Central Ministers from Bihar did not do much for the State. But that has changed and this is a post-1999 phenomenon. How do you see the outcome in the Assembly elections next year?

Laloo might have a better chance... because there is no alternative.

Returning to development, the charge against Bihar by the Centre is that the Government is not able to use even the money given to it. Why?

The per capita non-Plan expenditure is the least in the country in Bihar. That means you are spending much less on your establishment. And if you do that the possibility of absorbing Plan funds is also less. Also, whenever they say Centre gave so much money which Bihar couldn't absorb, that is primarily because in the Plan funds the ratio is 70:30, 70 per cent is loan and 30 per cent is grant. And for that you have to raise internal resources which most of the time the Bihar Government has failed to do.

You asked about compensation for Jharkhand. Not only have we not been given the compensation of Rs 1,50,000 crore promised, even some of the interest burden of the capital assets built in Jharkhand has been passed onto Bihar!

We had calculated a figure that suppose India grows at 8 per cent annually... to reach that figure, we have to grow at 15 per cent right from this year till 2020! For growing at this rate, we need to invest Rs 34,000 crore every year.

And there is no question of foreign investment coming to Bihar.

Forget foreign investment; first let private and Government investment come to Bihar.

But then Bihar has such a negative image problem.

How did that happen? Imagine a theoretical situation. Locate overnight in Patna all the Government institutions from Bangalore and Hyderabad. The people who are staying there will come here and the image will change. Other than Kerala, where State-sponsored institutions have come up, most other States have Central Government sponsored institutions. Bihar does not have a single institute of any importance.