The mind of Bihar

By Gautam Siddharth

A consistent failing of nearly all the political opponents of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, including his many detractors in the media, is their inability to make a proper appraisal of the Bihar leader's political acumen and extraordinary communication skills. There isn't a day he is not pilloried and condemned; when he isn't lampooned, scoffed at and ridiculed by his critics who are a legion. Yet none of this ever seems to bother Mr Yadav, who laps it all with glee, asks for more of the same, and bashes on regardless with his antics that are carefully cultivated to cause outrage.

What is more important is that, in the process, Mr Yadav creates an "us-versus-them" scenario, in which he successfully tells his votaries in the vast hinterland of Bihar, that the only reason he is blackballed and made fun of is because he is like them, one of them: A simpleton, a buffoon. Mr Yadav has reaped enormous benefits from this "novel" approach to politics.

Of course, it is all wrong; it should not be as it is; and, at some point such manipulation of people's sentiments will cease to yield dividends. But, such a denouement will have to be forced. Mr Yadav will have to be checkmated electorally with mathematical precision. But this will not take place ever if Mr Yadav's political opponents in the State - with egos and political ambitions larger than truncated Bihar - do not realise their folly in remaining disunited. The mandate in the last election was against Mr Yadav, yet those who were rewarded by the people for opposing the RJD - specifically, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan - played into the hands of their other adversary, the Congress.

It is wholly unacceptable that Bihar should remain at the bottom of the heap insofar as development is concerned. But the fact is Mr Yadav often seems unassailable for the simple reason that Bihar's people continue to remain poor, without any stakes in their own progress. Under-development is the key to Mr Yadav's success and the first-past-the-post system in our electoral democracy has ensured his survival in power. You can't get rid of Mr Yadav till Bihar develops, and Bihar won't develop until Mr Yadav remains its great white chief.

Mr Yadav owes his rise to the mantra of socialism. By the early 1970s, when rural Bihari society was showing first signs of fissures and was falling apart owing to upper caste domination of bureaucracy and politics, and when corruption was rampant, the term social justice made an appearance in the North Indian political idiom. The authors of the new lexicon were leaders like Narendra Dev, Ram Manohar Lohia, and, specifically in Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan and Karpoori Thakur. These leaders succeeded in drawing large numbers of youth to their cause - Mr Yadav was one of them - which was born of the Congress's failures to address backwards' exploitation. Brahmanvaad - which meant primacy to the upper castes in jobs, among other privileges - was the dominant culture and the movement for social justice was its backlash.

In the new movement, there was a great deal of ideological talk about equality, development, integrity and justice in which all sections of Bihar's society, irrespective of their castes, were to be involved. A new leadership of hitherto "exploited" underclass was becoming apparent. However, as it often happens, the surface was not scratched deep enough; there were other layers to society that were not even visible. These were Dalits and the other most backward castes who had been in a vice-like grip of the upper castes as also - in light of subsequent findings - the "intermediary" castes like the Yadavs. After 1990 and the implementation of the Mandal Commission report, Mr Yadav became the most visible symbol of the assertion of the intermediary castes in Bihar.

It is doubtful whether Mr Yadav would have become the force he subsequently did in Bihar's politics had he not got Mr Advani arrested during his Rathyatra in 1990. After all, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav in neighbouring UP too was a product of Mandal politics, and he has spent several years out of power since 1990. In fact, it was he who was originally supposed to arrest Mr Advani, whose Rath-yatra itself was to unify Hindu society in face of the divisiveness generated by the implementation of the Mandal commission report. By arresting Mr Advani, Mr Yadav propounded hollow secularism and secured his hold on power with 25 per cent of Muslim-Yadav votes in Bihar. And in every Assembly election since 1990 - that is, in 1995, 2001, and to a lesser degree in 2005 - Mr Yadav has cashed in on a divided opposition and his secure vote-bank.

In these years, Mr Yadav has grown astute as a political strategist. He has stepped up his tirade against the "fascist" forces of Hindutva and - now that he realises empty slogans will mean nothing to empty stomachs - he has also raised cain against the cola culture and talked about introducing lassi, mattha, and kulhar at railway stations and in trains. It has the potential to further charm his voters; the English-language media can berate him till kingdom come. Mr Yadav's rural voters - of whom we know nothing in big cities - will find employment and cause to further deify him. The messiah may have failed, but he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The opposition to Mr Yadav must begin with the assumption that he has set the terms of the political debate. He needs to be challenged for his vision of the State, and not for his being, incorrigibly, Lalu Prasad Yadav. The NDA must present an alternate vision for Bihar's development, which must successfully communicate with the voters in Mr Yadav's own idiom. Leaders like Paswan and Nitish Kumar must sit in village chaupals and talk to the people about their problems, and how they propose to solve them. It would help if they did this together.

For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

�� This is ZESTCaste whose members watch India's painful journey to society's de-casteisation. Members are encouraged to post messages to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join ==theZESTcommunity====================================== [1] ZESTCurrent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCurrent/ [2] ZESTEconomics: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTEconomics/ [3] ZESTGlobal: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ [4] ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/ [5] ZESTPoets: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ [6] ZESTCaste: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ [7] ZESTAlternative: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTAlternative/ [8] TalkZEST: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkZEST/

Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

[ZESTCaste] The mind of Bihar (Opinion)

Reply via email to