The article is an eye-opener how the Bihar leaders have been busy only in mudslinging on each other and never interested in the developmental works except development of their own and family. Standard of media has gone down so much that their of area of ineterest has remained limited to showing glimpse of one man only shading crocodile tears with sole motto to target the rival even at this point of catastrophe. - Ramashray Sinha - Sept. 1, 2008

I urge all sections of the society and people to come forward and help our brothers and sisters in Bihar in this hard time. This is not the time to blame each other. First priority should be to provide food and shelter to all the affected people.

Media role is very important in this kind of natural calamity and I hope all media people will do their job responsibly and generously. - Gunjan kumar, Bangalore - Sept. 1, 2008

The plight of Bihar really forces all of us to search our soul to find the reason behind this malaise. When we look deeper, we find that there are N numbers of problems which has plagued this state.

I personally feel only a revolution involving the classes and masses can help rebuild Bihar, it's image. - Ritesh Kumar, Gurgaon - Sept. 1, 2008

This is a normal question which comes in my mind also. But we have to think that this is not the first time Bihar has been neglected by the media or the Indian Government. This should be thought by our political parties which represent Bihar through MP (Parliament). If you thing about any facilities like tax contribution, power (electricity), fertilizers, food purchased by Food Corporation of India etc in every place Bihar position is not a comfortable position. Dam has come or in the processes in almost every river in India except in Bihar’s rivers. If you see in north east state we find there so many dams are coming in the picture but what happens to Bihar? - Rajesh Kumar - Sept. 1, 2008

Biharis should quit blaming the politicians or others for the woes and instead contribute towards the upliftment. Even most Biharis seem to be indifferent towards this current crisis, finger pointing is not going to solve anything. The state is made of people, not of politicians. What I find distressing is that most Biharis only love rhetoric instead of direct action. There won't be any messiah solving the woes of state, it's people like you or me who would change it.

Personally, I feel there is only two way to go, i.e., educated Biharis should work within the system instead of leaving it or once you leave Bihar for your own good stop blaming the politicians.

The common mass being uneducated are in no way to solve the issues. It's like blind leading the blind. Only direct participation of talented educated people in Bihar affairs would change Bihar, writing from US or UK is mere rhetoric or lip service. - Rajesh Mehta - Sept. 2, 2008

Extremely practical and nice comments by my fellow readers, particularly by Rajesh Mehta.

I am not going to blame politicians or media for the image that we Bihari carry. Can anyone deny that Haryana is worse than Bihar when it comes to day-to-day behavior or law & order. But why Biharis are typed as boorish people?

I have one moot point to elaborate here – we don’t easily mix up with people belonging to other cultures. When we are in other states, we create a closed community of our own Bihari fellows. As a student, I have seen Bihari students doing nasty things in a group. I am not saying that other states’ student don’t do such things. But when you are in a group of Bihari people only, you are bound to be typed as a ‘Bihari’ who is doing wrong things and in this way, you are paving the way for others to speak bad about Bihar.

We don’t give importance to the international language, English. Though it is good to be proud of Hindi or your mother tongue, it is practical to acknowledge the language, which is required to succeed in today’s environment.

Have we ever brainstormed why there is huge politics going on in Maharashtra over Biharis? It's addressed above. Our syndrome of not mixing with people. Do we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with the same vigor as we celebrate Chhath there in Mumbai? There is huge population of Biharis in Maharashtra. Ever wondered what kind of profession they are in primarily? Milkman, guards, labors, house workers etc. Why…?

If you have to do such jobs, isn't Bihar itself is enough?

Let's check this point altogether… why the large population is doing this kind of work (mind it, every work is prestigious and one should be proud of whatever he does… but it's India). Because we don’t understand the value of education. I have seen smart people with pleasing personality and a graduate degree standing as security guards at the gates of my University. Why??? Because they can’t interact (mix with people) and they do not know ENGLISH.

I may sound a bit rude in saying all this but this is what I have learned after seeing and going through the 6 years that I have spent out of Bihar and India. - Abhishek - Sept. 4, 2008

I disagree with most of the comments put forward by Mr. Abhishek as they appear to me a polished way of accepting that we Biharis are inferior. That we Biharis don't mix up well with people belonging to other community is a false perception and on the contrary I have found communities like Bengalis, Malayalies, Tamilians etc. not mixing well with others and forming closed communities. In fact I'll go on and say that Biharis are more open-hearted than any other community. Coming to the point that we do not give importance to International language English is again accepting the fact that without English we're inferior and we can't survive - a colonial hangover which is killing the ethos of not only we Biharis but we Indians too since Independence...

I don't know whether the writer has done any survey on the participation of Biharis in festival like Ganesh Chaturthi but I think no survey would be needed to substantiate the fact that no Marathi participates in Chhath. And why always it is expected that Bihari has to adjust why its not the other way round?

And my dear friend I'm tired of hearing the cliché that most of the labourers, milks man, house servants/maids, slum dwellers are Bihari and such comments are made not only for Mumbai but also for Delhi. A survey done for state-wise distribution of slum-dwellers in Delhi found that maximum number belonged to UP contrary to popular beliefs. And I'm fairly certain that if similar survey is done for Mumbai the results would be the same. So, my friend's perception of Bihar is more or less resonating with that of popular media which is nothing more than a propaganda... And graduates of not only Bihar but of many other states like UP, MP etc. are being forced to do jobs of security guards and it has nothing to do with their English speaking capability. It has to do with the quality of the degree that they are holding. It's a degree just for the sake of it, nothing more. One who has failed even secondary exam can get a graduate degree in Bihar...

I mean how can anyone forget that every year hoards of talented aspirants in almost every discipline come out of Bihar and prove their mettle at different colleges and universities across India and abroad. How can anyone forget that this Bihar produces IIT JEE topper and IAS topper more often than any other state. This year JEE topper went on to win International Physics Olympiad gold medal how can anyone ignore this fact. Did media give attention to this fact? However if it is about mob justice or political mud-slinging our media do not fail to make note of that... How is it that only negative news about Bihar filters out to these media houses... How come they fail to notice an honest attempts being made by our honourable chief minister Nitish Kumar to change the face of Bihar...

And I'll give startling fact which many of you might not have noticed... Last year too Bihar was in the grip of unprecedented flood in which more than half of it's districts and more than 15 million people were affected... the expanse of last year's flood was much more than that of Kosi flood... Not surprisingly media coverage of last year's flood was almost nil... But this year I was surprised to see so much media attention being diverted towards Bihar flood... So what it did not find a place in prime time debates the coverage this time is much more than what it was last year... I was thinking for a while over this change in media's response and then I realized "oh it's because general election is approaching and the UPA government wants to highlight the failure of state govt. which belongs to opposition camp."

Having said that I do not absolve Biharis from all their shortcomings... That Biharis are not enterprising or industrious is one big reason for Bihar not being a prosperous state... Bihar being a cast ridden society is another bottleneck... Bihar has been ruled by inept and corrupt politicians chosen by we Biharis for decades and we've not learned form past mistakes is one more... Bihar's education system is crumbling and administration is almost defunct - all these are manned by Biharis...

In the end I would say that the state where Bihar is in today future can only be bright... Let's be hopeful that cast-ridden politics will eventually be taken over by developmental politics and Bihar too will figure in one of the fastest growing state and will be christened as food basket of India or agro-hub of India. - Amit Anand - Sept. 7, 2008

That's why people of Bihar need to understand is, Today media is not run by freedom fighter or Raja Harishchandra. It is run by business man, or business houses. They create stories, and sell stories rather than presenting the actual picture to the viewers.

Those who understand that media is telling everything correct, are basically innocent people. Today world had become so ruthless that, they create stories and sell stories. This is world of manipulation and fabrication. So be open-eyed. And most importantly, have some respect for ourselves for being a Bihari, and simply not jump over what other says. - Anup Kumar, Bangalore - Sept. 9, 2008

Discussion on this topic is now closed.