The Hindu Business Line : There's hope of rebuilding Bihar

"You'll find a different ambience in Bihar this time, many changes are in the pipleline" says Dr Shaibal Gupta, Member-Secretary of the Asian Research Development Institute (ADRI) in Patna. True to his word, Patna presents a slightly better image... better roads, brighter lights - though the residents complain that power cuts are rampant - and a glimmer of hope that things will improve.

Of course, a hot topic of discussion in Patna these days is Nitish Kumar and his attempts to put the State on the road to development. "When I recently spoke to Nitish he told me how he has to do samandar manthan (ocean churning) every day. His task is nothing short of that," says Dr Gupta.

Everybody you talk to thinks so. Comparisons with his predecessor and the Bihar strongman Lalu Prasad are inevitable. Mention is also made of the honeymoon period between the electorate and any new government.

Says Prabhat P. Ghosh, Director, ADRI, "International research has shown that the honeymoon period for any new government is around nine months, this is the maximum period people will wait for results. In any case, after one year you also get a new set of figures to analyse." He touches upon the most obvious difference between the two leaders, "Lalu was very powerful politically, but he was not an educated man. Nitish is a mechanical engineer and a very articulate man. His advantage is that he has no family baggage. And that in Bihar, or Indian politics, is a big thing. Also his name has never been associated with a scam or illegal payments."

But he points out that the MLAs with criminal record in Nitish's coalition are higher than those in the RJD government. "And, in the previous regime everything was highly centralised, everything had to be done by Lalu. Here there will be delegation but the question is how competent Nitish's ministers are when it comes to delivery. Nitish is a very experienced man himself, but many of his ministers are new to governance."

Ghosh highlights the mammoth task before the new CM when he says: "There is a big difference between being a successful Railway Minister and the Chief Minister of Bihar. Even Lalu has done very well in the Railways, which is a very organised institution with senior and highly competent people at the helm. You just have to allow them to work. But Bihar is very different." Dr Gupta agrees. "I'd say in the mission of building Bihar the proportion of the task involved is almost as big as that of rebuilding Europe after World War II. They had a Marshall Mission then; we do not know what will be the Nitish Mission!"

In terms of actual change and the role of the NGO sector and civil society in the task of rebuilding Bihar, Neeraj Labh, Managing Partner, Initiatives in Development Support, says a beginning has been made by the new government that has set up departmental committees with representation from social activistsWhen asked what has changed in the last four months, Gupta says, "At least there is a feel good factor among the elite sections in the State who feel that Bihar is again going to be a happening State. The very fact there is hope without a substantive reason is by itself a positive."

Echoing this feeling, President of the Bihar Industries Association K.P.S. Kesri gives the example of the 5.5-km run for development organised in February. "We invited Nitish to inaugurate it but he told us that while he won't be able to run, he would walk the entire distance. We were really surprised. We had 3,000 participants, after which we had to close registration, and around 15,000 people had assembled on the roads to cheer us."

Industrialists like him are hopeful that at long last investment will come into BiharBut then both Labh and Ghosh point out that the optimism is confined to the privileged sections. Says Labh, "The gruelling poverty drives people into a groove of fatalism where their expectations come down to such a low and dehumanised level that the whole perception of something like a child's education gets warped. It is not looked upon as a right but something gratis." He thinks NGO intervention should create such a demand and create "a proactive mindset on such issues."

(Concluded)

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