...but chief minister mum on land reforms
Campaigning under the sun has certainly taken its toll on his complexion. But in the complex, caste-ridden battlefield of the Bihar Assembly elections, the biggest round of applause greets Chief Minister Nitish Kumar when he announces, “Those who have looted government funds and made swanky bungalows, beware. If we come back to power, we will seize those bungalows and turn them into schools for children.”
If you are at a rally of Lalu Prasad, the loudest laughter and clapping are reserved for when the former chief minister lapses into his inimitable humour. With Kumar, who is trying to script a new politics of development in Bihar, people are more responsive to the talk of future tasks.
The sun is setting fast in the skyline of Taralahi village in north Bihar’s Darbhanga district — one of the most backward areas of the state — and the engineer-turned-chief minister carefully crafts his speech, starting with the improved law and order scenario. “Mahoul theek ho gaya hai (the situation has been set right now). Earlier, cars used to zoom with guns popping out of their windows. People made way for these cars. But now, will anyone dare to do this?” Kumar asks, before he corrects the error of a previous speaker who had announced that 46,000 criminals had been sent behind bars. “The number is more than 50,000,” Kumar points out.
If improved roads, bridges and the law and order situation are key achievements during his second tenure as the CM (the first one lasted for just seven days), Nitish Kumar’s nursery has fast bred corruption as well. Apart from the severe power crisis, combating corruption is going to be his big challenge if he returns to power.
If the CM had chosen his tasks correctly during the last five years, his campaign has a perfect backdrop: A newly-built school house in rural Darbhanga. Recruitment of teachers has risen during his tenure, just as the number of women in his election rallies. After reserving 50 per cent seats for women in panchayats, Kumar now asks them to first go and vote before cooking meals at home “and if any male member in your family doesn’t cast his vote, don’t give him any food for a day”.
In his rallies, BJP flags are hard to find and so are the names of other leaders. Kumar is the one-man army in his party’s Mission 2010. Everyone talks about him to keep the boat sailing. As the rally ends and Kumar jumps into a white Toyota Fortuner to cover the extra mile, villager Hari Narayan Mandal tells his friends, “No one will vote for the local candidate. Uu toh chorwa hai (he is a thief). But everyone will vote for Nitish Kumar.”
That perhaps explains why JD(U) president Sharad Yadav has barely five meetings in a day while Kumar holds tens of them everyday. And at those meetings, Kumar invariably emphasises that he is only serving the people of Bihar, while others are promoting their family members.
But the chief minister carefully forgets what would have made Hari Narayan Mandals and Harish Sahnis happier: Bataidari, or land reform. The upper caste landlords were furious when Kumar’s government came out with the Bandopadhyay committee report, suggesting seizing land from landlords and redistributing it among landless peasants. Sensing trouble, the issue finds no mention either in the JD(U) manifesto or Kumar’s speech. In Patna, he had snubbed a journalist for “not knowing much about Bihar” when the latter repeated his question on Bataidari.
The development mantra is fine and Kumar has earned the name ‘Quintalia Baba’ in north Bihar (for effectively distributing quintals of food grain to the flood affected). But the ‘Kurmi’ chief minister also doesn’t forget to ensure that all caste and minorities are properly represented in his meetings. His eyes are set on development but can’t take risks on the slippery ground of caste equations.
