Dialogue October - December 2005 , Volume 7 No. 2
Editorial Perspective
Bihar
election is just over. It was the most peaceful and hassle-free election in the
state during the last few decades. Pole percentage has come down. But the
difference may be due to the prevention of bogus voting. Any way, the people are
happy. K.G. Rao has undoubtedly emerged as the popular hero.
Three important signals, emerging
from the successful conductance of Bihar elections, generate optimism:
of the country and it will continue to repeat Bihar in other States
also; and it will not frustrate Indian
people in future on this count.
(ii) That the
Bihar State government machinery has not yet lost the capacity to revive and
become
functional.
(iii) That the
people of Bihar, by and large, as in any part of the country, want positive
developments.
Professor Paul Appleby, an
International authority on Public Administration, adjudged Bihar to be one of
the best-administered states of India in 1956. The situation gradually changed
and Bihar became one of the worst administered states of the country. As it
happened, many, otherwise good, officers were influenced by caste considerations
and thus abetted caste politics. Some formed nexus with the politicians. Shri
K.Abraham, one of the senior most bureaucrats of Bihar, was member Board of
Revenue when he retired in mid-1970s. He was District Magistrate of Purnea in
1951 and Divisional Commissioner of Bhagalpur in 1962. His observation is
revealing: He said: “I was shocked when a young IAS officer told me shortly
before I retired, that he and some of his colleagues had decided that it would
be foolish on their part to refuse to do improper acts at the dictate of
ministers.” The nexus between the bureaucrat and the politicians emboldened
the corrupt officers. Tragically, many honest officers were penalized for doing
the right things and quite a few dishonest officers were shielded and indeed
rewarded for pandering to the dictates of the ministers, and other influential
non-officials. With the passing years, it became more and more difficult for
officers to perform their duties honestly and fearlessly.
The
situation further deteriorated when criminals joined the nexus and the trade
unionism robbed the administration of its healthy work-culture. As expected,
there was steady deterioration in the administration. The failure was witnessed
in both the development as well as law and order fronts. The State lost the
capacity to deliver.
It is
true that administration gradually collapsed in Bihar. The law and order
situation became worse. Of late, ransom has become an industry. Jehanabad could
happen next door to the State capital, even after the State had prior
intelligence of the Maoist designs. The ‘Law and Order’ situation in the
state is so bad that even the Patna High Court took a serious view of the attack
on the Jehanabad jail and observed , “We are also not safe in court.”
The
Bihar syndrome exposes the weaknesses of Delhi as well. The Centre/Planning
Commission remained unjust to Bihar in Central funding, and even then, the megre
sum received from the Centre for development/Centrally Sponsored Schemes was not
properly utilized and a huge sum was returned back to Delhi every year. Partly
the sum was siphoned out. Undivided Bihar had almost 40% of the Country’s
mineral wealth. But proper royalty payment was denied to the state. Locational
benefit of development was also denied to Bihar due to ‘Freight Equalization
Policy’ imposed by the Centre. West Bengal and Orissa also suffered equally
due to this unjust policy. Infrastructure did not develop properly in Bihar and
the Centre was equally guilty. Even National Highways are not properly
maintained. The State does not have a single Central University/IIT. There are
hardly, any regional centres of the Central Institutes, etc.
Parts
of Bihar, along with West Bengal and Orissa, had the longest spell of British
colonial rule. The British introduced permanent settlement of land and highly
exploitative Zamindari system, which was responsible even for man made famines
and death of millions and depopulation of vast tracks from time to time.. The
system robbed the people of Eastern India of their initiatives. The British
colonial education, perpetuating even after independence, left the people highly
confused.
Bihar provides psychological
benefit to other states, and even to the Centre, and a feel that they are
better. Actually, the situation in
many parts of the country, on many counts, is still the worse. Farmers are
forced to commit suicide in states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh even
today after 58 years after independence. Parents are forced to sell their
children in places like Kalahandi. Veerappan continued to dictate terms to
Tamilnadu and Karnataka governments for decades, till he became diseased and
old, and was killed. UP, by and large, is the most criminal state of India. In
UP, like Bihar, political patronage of mafia dons has led to the law and order
situation spiraling out of control. The blood of innocent Karbis and Dimasa is
being shed every day in Assam hills. The NSCN and its leader, Muivah is
extending his empire of terror throughout North-East through his network and
patronage to insurgent outfits. The menace of the Ultra-left, the Naxalites is
increasing day by day. For Andhra, this problem is more than half a century old.
The Naxals are planning to carve-out a compact zone from Nepal to Andhra
Pradesh. The Islamist outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba dream of
establishing Dar-ul-Islam in this country. About 20 million illegal
immigrants from Bangladesh are staying in India. That country wants living space
(labensraum) in India and to annex areas in the North and North-East.. As
of today, it is hosting 192 camps of the Indian terrorist outfits on its soil.
The networking of all sorts of destabilizing elements and terrorist outfits is
becoming dense. ISI has playing nefarious game posing serious problem of
internal security. All these are sad developments indicating
Nation’s failures. In reality, the Bihar syndrome is an all
India syndrome.
It is sad that a dominant and
large section of our politicians, intellectuals and media men are knowingly or
unknowingly, weakening the Indian nation and the society by their wrong actions.
They create chasm by promoting inner divide on caste and communal lines.
Provocative actions are often ignored and rationalized. Such actions promote
intolerance, ‘enemy-image formation’ within the society and ‘mirror-image
reciprocation’. It tends to weaken the society and the country from
within. Such persons are mischievous and foolish; mischievous, as they are
working against their own society and the country; foolish as their actions are
based on false premises that the country and the society are not fragile.
There is no doubt that our Prime
Minister is honest and sincere; wants to lead the nation on the fast track of
development. The interest of the nation is supreme for him. But the lethargy of
the system and the existing political culture of the country puts hindrances.
Difficulties multiply when the coalition partners start acting as opposition; a
section of media and intellectuals mis-inform, mis-interpret and confuse. The
Iran issue amply shows that there is no dearth of persons and parties in this
country, who work as the extended arm of foreign countries and try to
communalize even the foreign policy of the country. It is shocking that the
leftists who ignored the clandestine supply of nuclear know-how by China to
Pakistan are opposing the supply of nuclear fuel to our country, which we
genuinely need. The need of the bomb of a state, which openly declares to wipe
out the existence of a country from the global map, gets preference over the
genuine needs of the country. The behaviour of the students of a centrally
funded premier institution of this country on this count, trying to prevent the
country’s premier from delivering his lecture is equally shocking.
This erratic behaviour of working
against the genuine interests of the nation by our people becomes puzzling when
we compare the same with that of the Chinese. This may only be explained by
accepting that the Communism (Sovietism, Stalinism, Marxism, Leninism, Maoism,
whatever, we call it) came as a colonial ideology to India. Unlike Russia and
China, India failed to produce a Lenin or Mao. And again, Marx himself praised
British rule in India. Again, Wahabism, fighting against traditional
Islam/Sufism is clearly viewed unfavourably in Central Asia and Russia. The
impact of Wahabism/Tablighi Jamaat in India is also disruptive. The malady,
mentioned above, is the result of a mind-set resulting from triple colonial
impact of British education, Marxism and Wahabism. Needless to say that their
impact tends to denationalize Indiams.
The serious malady, which has
crept in our political culture, intellectual life and the media needs to be
remedied. There is no way out for the civil society than to confront them
frontally and wage intellectual war till the situation improves.
Dialogue (A quarterly journal of Astha Bharati) |