To come to Patna amid the countdown to the upcoming Assembly election is to come across lingering stories about a Bihar that was; a palpable sense that the state has come a long way from its past; a tangible fear of backsliding, a tentative need to play it safe — and also, a Bihar that is restless, wanting and waiting for more.
In a state of poor urbanisation, Patna has become an island of visible development and change. It has seen, in the last few years, the creation of urban public spaces that other state metros have long taken for granted and that have taken a long time to come to Bihar’s capital — from the glitzy mall to the spacious and elegant museum, from the vibrant cafe with loud music that opens till late to the “marine drive” by the riverside, where the young come to enjoy a nightlife.
Yet, over and over again, in conversations with voters, you hear about the incompleteness of “vikas”, and the insistent question — why must Bihar’s young have to leave their homes and go to faraway Bengaluru and Noida and Chennai, to study and to work? Why can they not be with their families and loved ones and also have well-paid jobs in corporates? Why does Bihar’s creaking education system still stand in the way of the aspirations and ambitions of its young?
These questions are posed not just by those who profess support to the challenger in this election, but also, strikingly, by those who repose faith in the incumbent, Nitish Kumar. In fact, Nitish’s best hope in this election is if, after 20 years of incumbency, the change or “badlav” question is still mainly addressed to him, and not to those who seek to unseat him.
In an election that, with the rise of a new party, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, seems to have acquired more moving parts than before, what Nitish may be counting on is that he is seen to preside over, and he is given ownership of, three broad success stories: restoring law and order, building visible bijli-sadak-pul-flyover infrastructure, enabling women’s empowerment through a slew of women-centric subsidies and schemes, the latest being the Mahila Rojgar Yojana Of course, this acknowledgement is neither universal nor complete. It is interrupted by caste lines — you will not hear it, or only grudgingly, among Yadavs and there is a mixed response among Muslims. The fact also is that the Nitish government’s achievements are scarred by patchy and leaky delivery.
The burden of oldness and newness
On the other side, Nitish’s rivals have their own burdens to bear, of oldness and newness, respectively.
Tejashwi Yadav is still to fully live down the legacy of the days of de-institutionalisation and “Yadav raj”, which has the potential to again range the Yadavs (and Muslims) versus the rest. And Kishor, who has certainly registered his presence in the fray, is seen by many, even among the young — who are back in Patna for the Chhat-Diwali holidays from other cities where they have migrated to work, and may or may not stay to vote — as too new, too untried and untested for a state of complex and tangled challenges.
In fact, in this election, Kishor’s party faces a special hurdle: The constituency for change is arguably strongest in the young, but how does a new party capitalise on it in Bihar, where the young have fled the state in large numbers, and may not be back long enough in this festive season to vote?
More broadly, from the point of view of the newcomer, at least in Bihar’s capital city, and for now, the best-case scenario seems elusive. There does not appear to be a trumping emotion or argument that can sweep out the old, or a political vacuum that can ring in the new — as it happened in Delhi, where the Anna Hazare mobilisation set the stage and Congress’s steep decline helped “outsider” AAP.
In Bihar, seen from the vantage point of Patna, Kishor’s three-year mobilisation on Bihar’s larger and more uneven ground does not seem to have struck sparks of the kind that the Anna movement did in Delhi, nor does the RJD look likely to cave in like the Congress, its Muslim-Yadav base appears to hold. In Punjab, the other state that saw the newcomer come to power in recent times, the electorate seemed to have reached a high point of cynicism with the established players, and the AAP rushed in to seize the distrust. In Bihar, the increasingly less public figure of Nitish may look overcome by the demands being made on him, battered by his own political switches and hemmed in by the work still to be done, but there is little or no visible rage against him. He is also being shored up, significantly, by the support, especially among upper classes and castes, for his bigger and powerful ally, the Narendra Modi-led BJP, which rules the Centre and offers resources that Bihar desperately needs.
Voices for change — through status quo
At the Sardar-ji-Bakhsh cafe, chic and bright with twinkling lights amid green foliage in Patliputra colony, Anusha Singh, 23, who works with a multinational in Chennai, says: “I have seen changes under Nitish, Bihar is not the same as it was when I was a child, in terms of roads, infra, freedom from power cuts. But Bihar now needs tech parks, and companies to set up base here, give jobs… It needs better education… I want the same government to come back, but it should add more growth. Tejashwi is not the answer… we have heard stories of kidnapping and lawlessness (in Lalu rule) from our parents”.
Says Anjali Tanya, 24, who is studying to be an Ayurvedic doctor in Odisha: “Nitish has helped make women independent, given them jobs and reservations and safety. Prashant Kishor still needs time to grow, he might get a chance after that.” Puja Sharma, who works in a corporate in Pune, says: “I am not convinced that Tejashwi speaks for the state, not just for himself. If he wants to become chief minister of Bihar, he should think of Bihar. Things have changed, but they need to change more. We need IT parks, not just roads and buildings. We want change, for the state to grow”. “Nitish can do it”, says Anjali, “because he is with the BJP”.
“A new face is required”, says Nitya Singh, 25, “we are still striving for basics, raising pensions, giving subsidies, not thinking out of the box… There is no longer vision, just a reliance on cash transfers”. Having said that, she also says that a new experiment would be possible in another state, not in Bihar. Because “Here, there is fear. We were too young then, but we have heard stories (of “jungle raj”). In Bihar, a new face must have a strong backing”.
Shivani Kumari, 25, says, “Change hona chahiye, but as of now, there is no one capable of it. Tejashwi has a trust issue, what if… it’s a risk. Jan Suraaj needs time. There is no wide acceptance. Kab change hoga, kaisa hoga, (how will change come, what will it be), but not this time…” For Alice Verma, who works as an investment banker in Bangalore, change would also mean being able to wear what she wants. “Today my mother told me this is not Bangalore, don’t wear this dress. My father says take your brother with you when you step out in Patna. My brother is seven years younger than me!”, she says.
Jan Suraaj: ‘Right things … let them work hard’
At the Taj City Centre Mall, shopper Pallavi Ranjan, who works in Bengaluru, says that she trusts Modi, because of “Ayodhya, Pulwama, construction of new infrastructure.” She will vote Nitish, she says, because of Modi. For Kajal Kumari, salesgirl, it is “jo sarkar chal raha hai (the government that is)”, because the Nitish government has created “suvidha” or enabling conditions for women. “I got the bicycle to go to school, free uniform…”
Jaipriya Yadav, a PR specialist in Patna, says that “development has slowed for the last five years or so, and it seems confined only to Patna, there is no vision to build other urban centres.” Bihar needs “a new face, a modern thought process”, she says, even as Tejashwi doesn’t seem to have the “mindset for change” and she is sceptical about Jan Suraaj’s claims of winning a majority.
By all accounts, Tejashwi does not seem to have been able to widely tap into the evident restlessness with Nitish that makes itself heard even amid the praise for him, support for Tejashwi seems largely confined to members of the Yadav and Muslim communities, that seem to remain his party’s core support base.
At “Marine Drive”, Aamir Alam, who works as a nurse in Phulwari Sharif, says: “Real change would mean an overhaul of the education and medical systems, to make them more accessible to the poor. Nitish has made roads and bridges, but we also need jobs. Tejashwi speaks about jobs”. Mohammad Azhar Alam, a nursing student says: “Of course, it is impossible to give a government job to every family, but if Tejashwi says he will do so, kuchh na kuchh toh karenge, at least he will do something”.
At the new Bihar Museum, where families come in this holiday season, from Patna and also from outside, to give their young children a glimpse of the tastefully curated exhibitions and artefacts, or just for an outing in the gleaming, spacious premises, conversations with voters yield the same stories — that acknowledge the distance covered in Bihar, express a yearning for more on rozgar (jobs), palayan (migration) and corruption, and counsel patience to the new player.
Ravi Kumar Pandey, an engineer, says: “When I was studying, when it rained, I would find it difficult to go back home… Now, young men come from my village to Patna to study and they go back even at night. Just look at this museum… When I went to Bengaluru in 2006, I wondered: Can Bihar ever be like this? Of course, unemployment and migration continue unchecked…”
“Prashant Kishor has the right ideas, says the right things. Let him work hard for five more years”, he says.