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The price of empowerment PLAIN POLITICS/ It certainly doesn`t come cheap, but is Rabri Devi the answer? Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi February 26, 2005 If you?re a liberal modern Indian who believes in democracy and a welfare state, is conscientious about paying taxes and is convinced the socially powerless must be empowered to ensure their emancipation, then Lalu represents a political problem, but Rabri Devi, an even bigger one. Here?s the thing: caste lives in India and the rise of Lalu Prasad is the rise of a set of people who have spent much of independent India?s 55 years believing they are doomed to live outside the charmed circle. Uma Bharati best described what it is like to belong to the backward caste in rural India. (This, by the way, is a 1990 story). ?When we (the Lodhs) cycle to the village,? she said, ?we have to dismount before we reached the zamindar?s house. Otherwise his servants think we?re trying to defy him. There was a time they used to come after us. That no longer happens, but we still dismount?. This is a voice from caste that is still economically better-off. Of the stories the Dalits have to tell, the less said the better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you might say. But as Lalu wound up his Assembly election campaign in Bihar, one of his stock themes was a conversation with (backward class) voters that went thus: ?I have a 20-year contract with you. In the first five years I gave you a voice. In the second phase, I got your brothers elected to Parliament. In the third phase, I gave you government contracts and the chance to earn money to buy things. Now, you have to give me five years to get your brothers appointed SP and DM. That?s when our contract will be complete.? In these 15 years, Bihar has slid to the bottom in virtually every economic indicator. Land reforms have been an incomplete revolution. Anything remotely resembling an industrial revolution has passed the state by. It is almost as if there is a trade-off between the empowerment of the socially backward and economic progress. You could tell yourself that a negative industrial growth, deceleration of the economy and agricultural practices of the slash-and-burn era are a small price to pay for the contract Lalu offers to lower castes. But does it have to be that way? And how does Rabri Devi fit into this? First, the story of how Lalu came to occupy such an important position in Bihar politics. It was the combined efforts of Nitish Kumar and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh that Lalu was offered as an alternative among scores of small and big, but mostly all elderly Yadav leaders who grabbed centrestage after Karpuri Thakur?s death. Lalu, political to his fingertips, figured out in no time that this was not just a chance to be the chief minister of Bihar but to become the leader of the Yadavs in Bihar and possibly other north Indian states, too. This has driven his politics and economics. He became chief minister and even tried to govern. But by 1996-97, he had come to realise that to bring administrative and economic change in Bihar is very, very difficult. Dispel the notion that Bihar was once a sone ki chidiya (a golden bird), and that it was Lalu who brought it to such a pass. The fact is, Bihar has always known endemic backwardness because forces of feudalism have retarded moves towards a market economy. Whether under Jagannath Mishra (who has a doctorate, after all) or Abdul Ghafoor, or even Srikrishna Sinha, Bihar has never forgotten that it was a part of the Permanent Settlement system that fuelled extravagant conspicuous consumption by landlords and thus deepened inequality. Unlike the Ryotwari system that gave rise to a relatively enlightened ruling class that debated issues of governance, in Bihar, politics are always about protest and class polarisation. 1996-97 were also the years of the fodder scam and it was clear that Lalu was going to jail. Everyone thought it was his lieutenant and ?think-tank? (now a hated enemy who is in the Ramvilas Paswan fold) Ranjan Yadav would become chief minister. No one had heard of Rabri Devi. And everyone concedes that they got the shock of their lives when it was announced that she would take over as chief minister. A brahmin in Samastipur who belongs to her village, Gopalgunj, says he remembers the time when she used to live in the village and every morning would supervise the collection of cowdung to make upla. None of Lalu?s acquaintances of the time recall ever having seen her in the living room. So here was true empowerment. The 27th chief minister of Bihar and the first woman to assume this office took over in 1997. When she first became chief minister, she could not write. Almost all the Cabinet meetings she would hold saw Lalu present and directing affairs. An IAS officer was asked to take an order. He refused. He said he could not accept orders from an illegal chief minister, and wrote to the chief secretary to that effect. He was transferred out the next day but Lalu did not sit in on Cabinet meetings after that. It took two years to teach Rabri Devi who she really was. From lessons in tying a sari, to learning to write has been a long journey. Now she is accomplished at being chief minister. Back then it was empowerment in the true sense. It is another matter than the people of Bihar paid the price for Rabri Devi?s education. But Lalu has won two elections in that period, so clearly the people of Bihar don?t grudge it. Now in the next few days, there is a 50-50 chance she may be back in office. How must we view the Rabri phenomenon? Is it the victory of philosophy over class, where seduction by offers of ?empowerment? and ?dignity? is more potent than the possibility of an income and a surplus? Why is it that the likes of Rabri Devi, who has known deprivation in her life, find it so difficult to make some efforts, token and small, to improve the lives of the people they govern? The first signs are not encouraging. Obviously on Lalu?s instructions, Rabri Devi has issued orders to get known history sheeter and MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin released from jail where he had been sequestered by a district magistrate who is clearly an idealist. Lalu had said during his campaign speeches that if RJD came back to governance, he would tear ?from limb to limb? criminals in politics. This is not borne out by Rabri Devi?s move. It is possible that Bihar might have to reconcile itself to another spell of absence of governance. Empowerment doesn?t come cheap. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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