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I
wish to thank all who read the article. Some
have taken time out to comment on it. A few have
chosen to disagree with me. A special thanks to
those who disagreed since it is only through
knowing the other's point of view that a debate
transforms into a dialogue.
I have clubbed the disagreeing responses into
three categories and tried to answer them.
1.
Bihar has got adequate share from the central
pool and if it has not developed, it is because
it has chosen to flounder its share.
This one is easy to answer as it can be answered
with bare facts. Till the fifth five year plan,
the figures were available per capita. Without
exception, Bihar's share was the least. Since
then, the per capita figures were done away
with. Thus they started the culture of a club so
that if you are rich, you would continue to be
rich.
While the discrimination against Bihar was
prevalent right from the beginning, even the
evidence that it was so was sought to be
obfuscated in this way. I have reasons to
believe this was done under the influence of Dr
Ashish Bose.
Mohan Gurusawmy, an economist, has done an
analysis and says that if Bihar had got what its
due share was, based on national average, it
would have got Rs 77,000 crore more.
See this link (Page 8)
This is without adjusting for inflation since
1952.
If you don't want to allocate against the
population, then at least allocate against the
ROI. My argument is that if one measures the
improvement in Bihar since independence against
the measly allocation, the ROI on Bihar's share
would be amongst the best in the country. If not
equity, simple economic reasoning tells money
should get invested where it finds best returns.
The parameters employed by the planners are so
heavily loaded against Bihar that it cannot but
be shown as the worst performer. As one wag
remarked, "figures don't lie, lies figure". For
example the correct way to calculate the return
on investment on irrigation would be to measure
the productivity improvement per acre against
the investment in irrigation per acre. The
figure that gets reported is the productivity
per acre without showing the investment that has
gone into it, as if productivity exists in
vacuum. Might as well have a competition between
a weight lifter and the operator of a crane and
declare the crane operator the victor!!!
If one tries to start a debate on these issues,
the answer is mostly subjective biases alluding
to the usual weaknesses of Bihar – lower farm
labour productivity, lack of land reforms. Now
if indeed land productivity is low in Bihar,
then why is Bihar labourer so much in demand in
Punjab? Why is the land productivity high in USA
or for that matter Uttaranchal and Punjab, where
there is no land ceiling? The obvious answer is
the higher investment that has gone into those
lands, but not for our planners.
2.
If things have gone wrong, it is primarily the
politicians of Bihar who are to be blamed. The
residual blame should be borne by the Bihari
civil society, perhaps the educated elite.
If something goes wrong with a person or a
group, the ultimate responsibility is his.
However, there are things which may be beyond
his control which are characterised as
environmental factors. Can one expect any
reasonable improvement if one seeks to take the
blame for environmental factors also onto
oneself? If a child is illiterate, well, it is
so because he did not study. But if his parents
did not have the means to teach him, do we still
blame him?
Even more crucially, whatever be our share of
the blame, isn't the blame far more on the
planners who have the direct responsibility to
allocate these resources. The country has
reposed its faith in them and they are expected
to be equitable in their distribution. We have
allowed them to get away scot free without any
scrutiny. We never held them accountable
We did not spare Lalu when he did not deliver
development. Perhaps we would not spare Nitish
if he is unable to change Bihar. There is no
reason to be any less severe on the planners.
They don't even have to win an election through
popular votes and there is no reason why they
should be anything but professional.
If some of us are trying to break new grounds by
questioning the planners, please be supportive.
If not, please don't muzzle our voice by your
over criticism.
3.
"We deserve to be called BIMARU. All economic
indicators point that we are indeed Bimar. A
variant of this argument is that it does not
matter what some people say, howsoever insulting
it may be. so just grin and bear it.
To me, this is the saddest of all the arguments.
No group of people, Biharis or otherwise, is
Bimar. BIMARU is nothing short of a pejorative.
So many years of demeaning names like kodhiya,
chamaru, jolhandi, gawar, baniaoti, etc never
lead to any progress of these groups, only
dehumanised them and took away their dignity. Is
there any reason to believe Bimaru would lead to
anything different? On the other hand, we are
already seeing the blood of Biharis in Assam and
elsewhere. If anything, the situation in the "BIMARU"
region in general and Bihar in particular has
deteriorated compared to other Indian states
since the term was coined.
The epithet BIMARU applies to almost half the
population of the country. It is very very
unfortunate that even official Planning
Commission documents use this term. Just because
it has been in use for several years does not
give any justification to its continued usage.
Some may hope such a term was coined to shake us
up from our slumber. Believe me, we only end up
giving justification to the people who coined
this term to continue with their tirade.
I had purposely quoted the World Bank report to
highlight that image DOES matter. People in the
position of influence have to be made aware of
their obvious biases. Today, a graduate coming
out of Bihar has to work double hard just to be
in the reckoning. If something goes wrong, the
first axe inevitably falls on him. A labourer is
derided in spite of his hard work because of his
Bihari roots. A rickshaw puller at Delhi is
called addressed Bihari as if he was not earning
his living through hard work but by some illegal
means. A student has to suffer the ignominy of
having to explain his marks. Many are denied a
chance just because they are from Bihar. A
Bihari has to constantly prove his innocence as
the normal state is assumed to be guilty. This
farce has gone on for far too long. We cannot
allow this any more.
In the final analysis, it is heartening to note
that the public debate in Bihar is moving beyond
the oft repeated topics of casteism,
criminalisation, and land reforms. PatnaDaily
deserves special thanks for being a vehicle for
this.
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Comments: |
Ramjee,
I fully agree with you. I know bias
against Bihar was there before
Laluji too but it took serious turn
only after Laluji. Ever wondered why
a central planner will be so biased
against one of our India’s own
state? There has to be a reason
otherwise why someone should be
biased against something. Why it is
that on a public forum a Tamil
Brahmin tries to take out his
frustration against 70% reservation
in Tamil Nadu on Bihar than on his
own leader? Why it is that some of
the top Bengali media fellow take
his frustration again consistent
communist rule in West Bengal on
Bihar and Biharis? Bias yes but why?
In your last paragraph you have
rightly said that public debate in
Bihar is moving away from oft
repeated topic of casteism but it
has only happened in Bihar but in
rest of India it is still there and
Biharis test it in extended form of
casteism and sometime they test it
from our own ‘EXCEPT YOU’ type. Here
is my take on this and I will love
to hear your views as why there is
bias against Bihar in our own India.
Anyway read on.
I never felt that there was any law
and order problem in Bihar from the
investment point of view but I
always understood that to dislodge
Laluji from power there had to be
some issue, this was a good issue
and being a humble Bihari I thought
it is always a good idea to have
even a better law and order for
common people. Then there was issue
of investment linked to law and
order which I never believed and I
still don’t believe because like you
even for me it is always the
sustained negative image of Bihar
which is the main culprit. Laluji
besides bringing considerable amount
of ‘social justice’ though
immaturely also changed the face of
politics in Bihar. In his 15 years
of rule, Bihar became state
dominated by leaders with regional
scope and appeal. National Party
such as Congress and BJP became
allies to regional parties such as
RJD and JD(U). Congress and BJP
became parties without any
influential leader from Bihar though
I have very high regard for Sushil
Ji. Meanwhile Laluji failed to
realize big time that fixing the
feudal attitude of thousands of
years based on casteism is not
something which he can do alone. He
lost two good friends, Nitish Ji and
Ram Vilas Ji due to his personal
ego. One would expect that rise of
regional parties would have helped
Bihar but because rise of regional
parties were based on promoting the
‘social justice’ so vested interest
attacked this the most. With very
vicious racist and casteist attitude
term ‘Bihari’ was promoted as an
‘abusive’ word later the same
casteist mentality was extended by
declaring Bihari as another backward
caste. Yes, irrespective of upper
caste or lower caste all Biharis
were now supposed to belong to
backward caste and if you are a
Bihari from upper caste ready to
abuse Bihar then you were made to
believe that ‘EXCEPT YOU’ every
other Bihari including your upper
caste Bihari brothers belong to
backward caste without reservation.
Then came the actual treatment, if
in Maharashtra and Andhra it was
shown how to slap a Bihari then
Punjab and Assam got into the race
of ‘Abtak Chhapan’ murder in cold
blood. In Goa a local panchayat went
ahead and modified the Indian
Constitution by passing a resolution
by prohibiting every Biharis to
reside in their village. We all know
India is our country and Biharis are
part of India as long as one can go
through the history of India so much
so that ‘Chakra’ on our modern
Indian national flag or our official
emblem all have close relation with
Bihar. So, how one should explain
this humiliation of Biharis? I don’t
think this has anything to do with
regionalism. Similarly I am
confident that very-very vast
majority of our brother and sisters
from other states of India love and
respect Biharis. Maharashtra,
Punjab, AP, Assam or Goa named as
example are full of very good and
great people. Then who are these who
humiliate and murder Biharis. It is
those who have been brought up with
hatred towards lower caste Indians
who saw Bihar and its rising
regional parties and their agenda of
‘social justice’ as a threat. They
became scared that ‘social justice’
wave of Bihar will engulf their cozy
world where they can still blind
people and rule in the name of
language and region ignoring
Khairlangi. Media also joined in
this extension of upper caste
mentality of treating Biharis as
backward caste. Media is full of
upper caste and it takes special
pleasure in bashing Bihar and
Biharis.
In last 15 years number of ‘EXCEPT
YOU’ type of Biharis have increased
who have aggravated the situation by
taking special pleasure in bashing
Bihar and Biharis in every pervert
way. Advantage of this situation was
taken to full by people with vested
interest if you wish you can call
them few bad apples among central
planners or identify with anyone
whom you have seen with biased
attitude towards Bihar and Biharis.
Here is a sample how racist it
can become. Fortunately
Bihar realised that Laluji is
becoming a weak commander and Bihar
was getting lot of collateral damage
in his battle and packed him out of
Bihar to run Indian Railways for
good. With the help of Sushil Ji,
Bihar handed the command to a person
who was always a commander in
waiting and that is our Nitish Ji.
Nitish Ji and Sushil Ji duo are
doing great job and they are really
working hard. Both of them are
person with high integrity.
Today whenever Nitish Ji says and he
says it quite often, “Bihari Kahlana
Garv ki Baat Hai (Being called a
Bihari is a thing of Pride)”, my
heart goes out for him because I can
see the damage which has been done
to word ‘Bihari’ by pro and anti
social justice forces and I can
understand why he keeps on repeating
this. We all are victims
irrespective of other’s agenda.
Foolish people believing in ‘EXCEPT
YOU’ should try to control their
caste hormones or they will never
understand how people like me get
inspiration from Laluji. Reason is
simple, because I am neutral and I
am seriously inspired by his
business sense after all Bill Gates
was not from any reputed engineering
or management school. Watch out for
next railway budget, this person is
amazing with his bandwidth from
‘Kulhar’ to McDonald’s in Indian
Railways. I am enjoying success of
both Laluji and Nitish Ji, both are
great. Today all our leaders be it
Laluji, Nitish Ji, Sushil Ji or Ram
Vilas Ji are talking about
development. The best was Rabri Ji
trying to corner Nitish Ji’s
government with all her database;
Bihar never had such a positive
environment. - Shiv Shankar
Sharma - Feb. 11, 2007
Thanks Ramjee to bring the facts
again. Yes you are right in Saying
Numbers Talk, rest is rubbish.
I did see few people (without taking
their names) who wrote in response
to the earlier post about Bihari
being the root cause for Bimaru
state. But those gentlemen failed to
realize that if Biharis are the
problem then how come we Bihari are
everywhere on top posts?
We got rid of Lalu and his Lalugiri
but we still need to get rid of
these people who are Bihari (so
called) but they do more harm to
Bihar than outsiders. These so
called ELITE BIHARI gang who feel
shame on calling themselves Bihari
should be banned from coming to
Bihar.
The message to those people is very
clear "If you cannot be part of
Solution, Please refrain yourself
from being another Problem". -
Samir Kumar Mishra, Brisbane,
Australia - Feb. 11, 2007 |
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