Ruled or Misruled: Story and Destiny of Bihar

Book: Ruled or Misruled: Story and Destiny of Bihar

Author: Santosh Singh

Publisher: Bloomsbury

ISBN: 9789385436307

Publication Year: 2015

Pages: 341

Price: ₨ 899

I am forever walking upon these shores,

Betwixt the sand and the foam.

The high tide will erase my footprints,

And the wind will blow away the foam.

But the sea and the shore will remain forever.

—Gibran, Sand and Foam (1926)

Mr Santosh Singh begins his book with these six lines of Kahlil Gibran’s Sand and Foam (1926), which quite aptly capture the political trajectory of Bihar. From 1947 to the present, Bihar has had 23 Chief Ministers (CMs), some served multiple terms, while some could not complete even a single tenure. Everyone came and left their mark, both good and bad, yet the state remains, retaining the same political significance for whichever dispensation rules the country. 

Bihar’s History through a Journalist Methodology

The Bihar Assembly elections concluded recently, and many are surprised to see such a huge mandate for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the incumbent coalition in the state. However, this is barely surprising to those familiar with the political history of Bihar, particularly after independence. This book by journalist Santosh Singh, an Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, tries to delve into the intricacies and complexities involved in Bihar Politics. The author tends to tell history, but with a journalistic flavour. He relies on interviews, both recorded and unrecorded, to provide insight into some of the landmark incidents that proved pivotal in shaping the state's political landscape. Instead of giving his theories and analysis, he presents an unalloyed story in the form of interviews and news coverage about events and personalities that played a key role in the state’s politics. The book can be of interest to people willing to investigate how politics operates in the land of Chanakya, the great ancient Indian political philosopher. Rather than adopting a chronological structure, the author arranges the book into sections focused on the Congress, Lalu–Rabri, Nitish Kumar, and the NDA.

The Banyan Fell and Fell Forever

Mr Singh devotes the first part of his book to investigating the ‘fall of the banyan tree’, referring to the fall of the Congress regime after a disturbed reign of more than forty years in the 1990s. The book makes it clear how Congress became entangled in the ‘ultra-upper caste’ politics in a backward majority state, and things slipped out of its hands when the awakening of the backward classes happened through the student movement led by Jayprakash Narayan during the Emergency. Bihar has had as many as 16 Congress CMs before the grand old party became a spectator in the state after 1990. The author credits this instability to internal factionalism and inefficiency among its top cadre—primarily Brahmins and Rajputs. Mr Singh also terms these factors as equal contributors to its decline in the state. 

The Bhagalpur Riots of 1989, an indelible blemish on the otherwise harmonious history of Bihar, are described by the author as the ‘last nail in Congress's coffin’ in the state. The brutal series of killings that went on for a week killed more than 1000 people and displaced thousands of Muslim families living in the Parbatti and Tatarpur area of Bhagalpur. This caused heavy disenchantment for Congress among the state’s Muslim electorate. Backward castes and Muslims were in desperate need of a leader who would at least try to represent them. Here, the author theatrically brings in the character of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has remained a key character in Bihar’s politics since the 1990s. 

A Promise of Backward Representation Perched on Misgovernance

The political history of Bihar is dull and incomplete without the mention of the Lalu-Rabri phase. The author understands this. Thus, he devotes around one-third of the book to the deeds and misdeeds during the fifteen-year Lalu-Rabri stint in the state. The initial unprecedented success of Lalu in the state’s politics compels the author to term Lalu as a ‘phenomenon’. Mr Singh very precisely dissects the factors on which Lalu rode his success chariot. The implementation of the Backward Classes Commission (1980) report by the VP Singh government worked as a catalyst in propelling Lalu’s popularity. 

Mr Singh illustrates that Lalu knew exactly how to ride that chariot and where to take it. He acknowledges Lalu’s sense of political acumen that raised him to the clouds before he got entangled in one of the infamous corruption charges—the Fodder Scam or Chara Ghoatala. The unprecedented mandate of the 1995 Bihar Assembly elections soon dissipated, and now Lalu found himself engrossed, whole day and night, in trying to save his public image, but it was all gone now. Along with Lalu's personal narrative, the book recounts a parallel episode of how Bihar was devolving into lawlessness. 

Based on his conversations with some prominent journalists of the period, he concludes that the party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and its environment were such that misgovernance was unavoidable. The frequent incidents of kidnapping, rapes, murders, and bureaucratic inefficiency are credited for depleting Lalu’s fame among the Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and women electorate, as they were the worst-affected ones from these inadequacies. Apart from his journalistic sources, the author devises an empirical method to showcase the extent of misrule by presenting the data of crimes of various kinds, and presents the instances that primarily affected the masses in the state. While the 1995-2000 phase was characterised by caste massacres, in which the poor were the ultimate sufferers, the 2000-2005 phase was marked by a series of kidnappings for ransom. The Shilpi-Gautam Murder case of 1999, in which the whole investigation was fabricated by the state government and party supporters in order to save party-associated members from the heinous crime committed in the very capital of the state. The 2005 Kislay kidnapping case caught national attention when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the line ‘mera Kislay mujhe lauta do’ (return me my kislay), which became a major election issue that led to the defeat of the Rabri government in the 2005 state assembly elections (pg 85).

Nitish: Bihar’s Contrasting Experience

The book, after Lalu’s section, presents a completely contrasting story. It was the era of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s seriousness and tacitness versus Lalu’s histrionicism. Mr Singh highlights this contrast by giving insight into Nitish’s speeches, his instructions to the babus (bureaucrats), and his way of dealing with the press—all showcase his astute perceptiveness. Unlike Lalu, who mainly spoke in unadulterated Bhojpuri, Nitish uses chaste Hindi in his speeches and press conferences. In the author’s words— ‘Lalu symbolised pure rusticity, Nitish an urbane face’. The book also delves into the balancing act between social justice and governance, as seen in Nitish Kumar's approach, while Lalu largely ignored governance in sustaining his politics of caste. Their approach towards caste consolidation was different as well. While Lalu boasted of his Yadav caste, which makes up around fourteen per cent of the state’s population, Nitish, on the other hand, hardly made his caste affiliation ostensibly political.

However, there is one saying for Bihar that ‘yahan machchharon ke bhi jaat hote hai’ (even mosquitoes have their caste in Bihar). Thus, one cannot ignore the caste dynamics here, especially when talking about politics. It is evident how Nitish Kumar weaved his own social constituency covertly, without getting noticed by the media. The author’s mention of Nitish attending the Kurmi rally organised by Kurmi leaders in 1994 is an affirmation that he could not ignore his caste. He further argues that the near-whole consolidation of EBC votes towards him is nothing but the result of his efforts to further, or as one may say, empower them in the state's political and administrative institutions. However, the author fails to substantiate this claim with empirical evidence or concrete examples, particularly those highlighting the preferential advancement of Koeris and Kurmis within the administration. Promotion of RCP Singh and Manish Verma in the Chief Minister’s Office is one clearly visible example of Nitish’s caste consideration in bureaucratic appointments. After all, the author posits that the contradistinction between Lalu and Nitish lies in the latter’s prioritisation of his promise of good governance (sushashan) above all. 

An Incomplete Story

The author explores the political dynamics of Bihar through his journalistic rigour, in the form of stories. However, the author fails to arrive at any concrete conclusion for the title of the book, Ruled or Misruled. It appears that the author could not come out of his journalistic capacity and got engulfed in the inability to arrive at a judgment or progressive conclusion. Mr Singh tries to present both sides of the coin, which can also be a favourable approach to some readers, who prefer non-rhetorical works. Additionally, an economic lens, focusing on economic policies, budgetary announcements, and changes in per capita income under respective governments, could have proved to be enriching in giving a more comprehensive understanding of the state’s politics. A comparative analysis of Bihar’s political history with states like Uttar Pradesh, which have similar socio-economic and political conditions, could provide readers with a clearer understanding and help them reach a well-informed conclusion about potential ways forward. 

Some minor editing mistakes could have been addressed more effectively. However, it is important to note that these discrepancies do not detract from the overall substance that the book offers to the readers. 

The book clearly illustrates the political landscape in the state through a historical perspective till the 2015 Assembly elections. There have been sweeping changes in the state since then. The exceptional comeback of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), with both Lalu and Nitish together, after a sweeping performance by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is among the book’s most significant misses. It covers only the first waka-jumping by Nitish in 2014, but now the state has witnessed three more instances of carpet-crossing by Mr Sushashan Babu (a nom de plume of Nitish Kumar). There have been three Vidhan Sabha and two Lok Sabha elections since then. The role and significance of smaller and caste-specific parties, such as Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Vikashsheel Insaan Party (VIP), and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), have grown in the alliance formation in the state in recent times. 

To conclude, the book can be an interesting read for the readers, and help them provide a clear picture of political functioning in the state, more importantly, because of the author’s efforts to keep aside his bias and present a non-rhetorical narrative of the events in the state till 2015, the year of its publication. 

References

Backward Classes Commission. (1980). Report of the Backward Classes Commission (Mandal Commission Report) (Vols. 1–2). Government of India.

Gibran, K. (1926). Sand and foam. Alfred A. Knopf.

The author, Sanish Kumar, is an Assistant Editor at Ramjas Political Review.