Written by Amitabh Ranjan
Crime is read. The same goes for politics. Mixing the two creates a heady cocktail. Below is a story about Bihar, which has both in abundance. Dirty politics, crime, caste wars and a miasma of corruption plague it. There are few metaphors for enduring bad governance quite like the jungle raj, which alludes to the 15 years between 1990 and 2005 when the criminal-political nexus hit rock bottom and the country continued to be deliberately undergoverned. .
Mr Tiunjay Sharma's Broken Promises: Caste, Crime and Politics in Bihar focuses on the decade and a half of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, but also on the survival of the state since independence. It records many epoch-making events. This book is organized into his seven sections and takes the reader through the process of the collapse of Congress.
Even if the worst happens in the last 15 years, it has been in the works for a long time. Even after independence, Bihar's society, which was strongly feudal, remained stratified not only economically but also socially and politically. The land reform movement that had begun before independence had withered away by 1950. The disproportionate power exercised by a privileged few in the vast agricultural hinterland meant that for many people, including peasants, tillers, and unskilled workers, informal bondage was the only way to survive. It meant that. Individual freedom and dignity will remain a chimera. In urban spaces, power corridors will become even more off-limits to vast numbers of people who have fallen on the wrong side of the caste divide.
Dissatisfaction was smoldering. Marginalized people were waiting for a savior to rescue them from the quagmire. In Lalu Prasad, they found it. Or so they thought. He played the Pied Piper, building around his trademark naive political persona, denigrating the upper castes and selling dignity to the less fortunate.
Lalu was too wise to believe that the upper castes would simply hand over power to him. So, in order to preserve his own votes, he constructed his own rules with a “conflict approach,” the by-product of which was noise, mayhem, and confusion. Crime became the most powerful instrument of power, governance was driven by membership in a particular caste, and corruption had support from the upper echelons. Result: Development was never on the agenda. True empowerment of the masses is a long way off, and cracks will begin to appear in Ral's armor of invincibility. By 2005, the exposure of the fodder scam would slowly but surely put Lal on the mat.
Nitish Kumar, who, like Lalu, entered politics under the leadership of socialist stalwart Jayprakash Narayan, was born in 2005 when economic and human development conditions were not only the worst, but also corrupt. He inherited a country with an administration marred by a resigned bureaucracy. Nitish is credited with carefully prioritizing his men and policies and bringing the nation back from the brink. Nitish has seen his ups and downs. But he has learned how to survive politically while changing the caste equation of electoral politics. Although his outstanding achievements are well recognized, he is also nicknamed “Parturam” (the one who changes companies in an instant).
In a nutshell, this is the story told by Mrityunjay Sharma.
There is no shortage of literature on Bihar's politics, criminal gangs, Baahubali, or the scams and scandals that regularly visit the state. But his report is a holistic account of what is plaguing a country whose historical and cultural heritage is formidable. An engineering graduate, MBA, and first-generation entrepreneur, he was inspired to write this book from the memories of his youth that he describes in his foreword.
A small irritant that the reader may encounter is regarding the use of language. This book deserves closer proofreading. There are also some factual errors, for example, mentioning Lalganj as the headquarters town of Vaishali district.
Bihar is by no means apathetic about politics.Due to the general election
(Amitabh Ranjan is a former journalist and teaches at Patna Women's College. The views expressed are personal)