THE BIHAR TIMES
A Passage to Bihar

 

NRBs can play a vital role

By
Rajesh Anand

A senior engineer working with
ABB Lummus Global at Singapore.

 

 

Bihar is a rich state where poor people live. Very few regions in the world are as endowed with the bounties of nature as Bihar is - there is the river Ganga with its long stretch, large patches of fertile land, varieties of fruit orchards - lichees and mangoes being the prime ones, mega tonnes of coal, iron, copper, manganese etc. and a plenty of human resources. Then why is that our Bihar today is considered an anachronism in our modern society and has come to be known as a perfect antithesis of development , good governance and a thriving and peaceful community of people.

The plight of Bihar is such that the name now only evokes sarcasm and everything boorish and obnoxious. The word Bihar has become a national and may be an international joke so much so that when Rajat Sharma questioned Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a Zee TV programme "Aap Ki Adalat" a few years ago that his name carried an intrinsic contradiction of being both Atal (steadfast) and Bihari, our respected PM, too, did not hesitate in joining the fun which the house seemed to regale into.

In my opinion, two factors immensely add to Bihar's current social and economic backwardness - disunity among its people and the continued indifference by the successive governments at the center in the last 2-3 decades. Both these factors abet each other. The masses are divided on caste lines and obviously cannot contribute to the development of the state. The peculiar pattern of caste politics and vote banks has given rise to a situation that politics does not attract persons of the highest intellect and morality. The result is that the persons who constitute the assembly are either incapable to serve their constituencies or are frustrated by the rival elements whose only business is to create roadblocks for their opponents.

If Bihar has to surge ahead and improve its per capita income, it must first educate its people to rise above the considerations of caste, creed and religion. It is the duty of the Government, the NGOs, the social activists, the non-resident Biharis and the right thinking citizens to declare a war against casteism, nepotism and corruption. We must also do something concrete to wipe out the menace of dowry which encourages people to earn unethically and which , in my opinion, is a chief cause of our regression. And I fully agree with Mr. Jha's valuable remarks that we must ask center to open reputed institutions like IITs and IIMs in north Bihar which has been systematically allowed to plunge into an area of darkness. One does not recall one single major public sector unit or a national institution coming up in north Bihar in the last few decades. The center has also miserably failed to implement any major project to curb the menace of floods which makes Bihar poorer by every passing year. It amazes me no end to think that why in the last 40-50 years, no planner has ever thought of simple things like setting up a mega industry based on fruit canning considering the vast amount of lychees and mangoes that is grown in north Bihar. This industry, by itself, which has a very good export potential, can usher a sort of green revolution in Bihar.

Center's policy of freight equalization was a death-knell for mineral based industries in south Bihar and center must own up the responsibility and make concerted efforts to undo the damages. It is also said that the royalties on coal, iron ore etc. have not been increased significantly in the past decades and Bihar has thus lost valuable revenues, which could have been used for the developmental work in the poor regions. These are examples of gross injustice to the poor people of Bihar who are now considered a national shame .

We Biharis are equally responsible for the mess. We, too, have failed in our duty to contribute to our motherland. For example, there are many successful people from Bihar living elsewhere in India and abroad but rarely one hears about anyone participating in Bihar's development by making concerted efforts for a positive change. I am sure there are individuals who could make a sizeable business investment in Bihar or support the NGOs working there. Such groups of people should constantly interact with the government on matters of business investments and general orderliness of the state. If NRIs can make a difference to the country, I am sure, the NRBs(non-resident Biharis), too, can contribute in some ways or the other. I agree, the road to this is fraught with problems but a beginning, nevertheless, needs to be made. People living in Bihar, too, need to stop being silent spectators of injustice being meted out to them and change their attitude.

It is amazing that the land which gave the lofty principles of Buddhism and Jainism to the world is mired in a rut of caste killings, kidnapping, broad-day light murders and dacoities and so on . Industrialists have shunned Bihar and it draws a blank in the foreign direct investments for the simple reasons that nobody wants to come to a place where they fear kidnapping, ransom and threats to life. The other essentials of business i.e the good roads, power availability and an efficient administrative machinery are woefully inadequate.

The responsibilty of bringing Bihar to such a pass must be shared by the center as well as the past and present leaders of Bihar, Centre for neglecting Bihar and using Bihar only as the vote-bank and the past and present leaders from Bihar for their failure to fight the insidious menace of casteism, nepotism and corruption.

Bihar seems to produce leaders who are either the most idealistic or the completely corrupt. There were likes of Dr.Rajendra Prasad whose idealistic fervour prevented them to do anything for the region they belonged to for being considered impartial. 10 years of Presidency perhaps was a long period to see some real lasting developmental projects mushrooming in those areas but nothing seemed to take place considering the kind of poverty and anarchy that prevails in the area today.

However, I would like to end with a note of optimism.

Though, Bihar today is synonymous with acute poverty, lawlessness, a defunct administration, general disorder and social and economic backwardness, I do not believe that it will always remain so. Of course, the challenge is to bring in the changes as early as possible. History tells us that a region of Bihar's size will not remain stagnant. We should learn from the example of our country, which was considered among the richest in the world about 250 years back. India must really hasve been very prosperous for the Britishers to call it a jewel in their crown. Dominique Lappierre's book "Freedom at Midnight" describes the enormous wealth that its provincial rulers had. But India fell down from that high pedestal and now ranks below 100 in terms of per capita income. One of the main reasons for this fall was the disunity among various provinces. The lack of patriotism and the hedonistic lifestyle of some of these rulers was another factor that contributed to India becoming a prey to the British imperialists.

Bihar in a way is like India. It had the most glorious ancient past and even at the time of independence, it had an important place in the nation. To quote the famous Appleby report, it was the best administered state in the country at the time of independence. But, today, Bihar is considered a national nightmare and the elite economists describe Bihar as a basket case, a class, which endlessly poohpoos everything that is there about Bihar but does not seem to have one clue about solving its problems. Bihar's per capita, today, is probably the lowest amongst various states.

However, despite the overwhelming dislike for Bihar, its people are progressing. We have a finance minister who is at the forefront of shaping India's economy with panache. There are also many talented men and women who left Bihar as Bihar could not provide a decent living to them and many of them are excelling in their careers. I feel, they are the real hope for Bihar. With their collective wisdom and love for this state with a glorious past, is should not be too late to remove the poverty from the face of Bihar.

 

BACK