During his public meetings in Bihar during the election campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha, Narendra Modi, then the prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), would often speak about his backward caste antecedents. But on Sunday at a rally in Gaya, Modi the Prime Minister (PM) did not bring up his caste origins. Instead, he spoke about development, just like his first rally in the state at Muzaffarpur in last month.
In his speech at Gaya, the PM focused on the backward economic status of Bihar over the past 25 years: the poor law and order situation; lack of educational opportunities, and the threat of the return of "Jungle raj part two", if the electorate were to vote for Bihar chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
At Gaya, Modi also chose the occasion to give his vote of confidence to the BJP's embattled chief ministers - Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh. "They brought out their states from the 'BIMARU' category. Under Raje, Rajasthan scaled new heights. The Chouhan government brought prosperity and peace in Madhya Pradesh. Give us one chance, we will bring Bihar out of the BIMARU category," said the Prime Minister.
'BIMARU', which literally means ailing, was an acronym of the 1990s to describe economically backward states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Notably, this is the first time that Modi has backed Raje and Chouhan after both found themselves at the centre of controversies in early July. The Congress has ensured a near-washout of the monsoon session of Parliament demanding the resignations of Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for their help to former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi, while Chouhan is being asked to quit over the deaths in the Vyapam scam. Modi escalated the war of words with both Kumar and Yadav. He said Kumar's Janata Dal (United) or JD (U) stood for "janata ka daman aur utpidan" (oppression and exploitation of people).
Within minutes of Modi's speech, Kumar reminded him of 'rajdharma' - a reference to the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee having asked Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, to follow his rajdharma in the wake of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in that state. At that time, Kumar was the railways minister in the Vajpayee government. Kumar tweeted: "In the context of oppressing and tormenting people, India still remembers Vajpayee's advice to you to fulfil the rajdharma in 2002." The Bihar CM had earlier termed the Modi government "Union Twitter Government, that listens, acts and responds only on Twitter".
On Yadav's RJD, now Kumar's ally, Modi said the party stood for "rozana jungleraj ka dar" (daily fear of jungle rule). Modi said Yadav has served time after being convicted in the fodder scam. "Does anyone learn good lessons in jail?" Modi asked, cautioning his audience to be wary of a "jungle raj part two" if Kumar and Yadav were to form the government.
Hitting out at the grand alliance of JD(U) and RJD, Modi said, "I don't know, who is Bhujang Prasad and who is Chandan Kumar? I don't know who is having poison and who is serving it? But I do know one thing - if they win this election, people of this culturally-rich state have to pay the price."
The remarks came weeks after Yadav, while accepting Kumar as the alliance's CM candidate, said he was ready to gulp everything and will drink all types of poison for Bihar.
A few days later, Kumar, while replying to a question on Twitter, appeared to compare himself to sandalwood, which remains unaffected despite snakes wrapping around its trunk. The Prime Minister said the poison has been consumed and will be spewed and affect people as JD(U)-RJD alliance will not last long. "Poisonous atmosphere will come along with Jungle Raj, if they win this election," he said.
Targeting the ruling dispensation in Bihar, Modi said the leaders deliberately kept the state backward, not allowing the Centre to bring any development. "Ganga-ji flows, but if we take an ulta-lota (inverted pot) how can we fill water? We are flowing in development, but the rulers here are not taking anything.. the state has the lowest per-capita utilisation of electricity in the country. Smaller states like Sikkim and Jharkhand have five-six times more power than Bihar."
The state has a population eight million youths in the 17-20 years age-bracket. There are only 25,000 seats in engineering colleges. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh have better arrangements…
The elections in the state are scheduled for October-November. The National Democratic Alliance comprises the BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, Jitam Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Party, and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party. Its rival, the 'secular alliance' comprises the RJD, JD(U), the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
