Need for developing Bihar and finding more job opportunities in state is definitely very urgent. Still one can not justify the stand of Thackerays - Bal and Raj. Not only it is unconstitutional, it is totally out of tune with the time and without any logic. Today it is time of globalization and Indian constitution gives the right to each Indian to work any where in the country. Are people from other states not working in Bihar, UP & Jharkhand or for that matter other states? Then why this bogey. There are a host of Maharashtrians and Gujaratis in Jharkhand. Large number of Marwaris, Punjabis, Sindhis, Bengalis and South Indians are working in these states without any discrimination and also pursuing their culture without any hindrance.

Mumbai is producing lot of money and generating lot of revenue for exchequer, but it is not because all the money is produced from the goods of Maharashtra. It is mainly because country's all financial institutions are headquartered there, many business houses are having offices there but they are accumulating wealth from earnings from all over the country. Tatas have big operation in Jharkhand. Railways are subsidizing local travel in all big cities. Lots of public money is invested in their infrastructure. Even if these reasons were not present, theory that any city or state belongs only to people originated in those states is totally unacceptable in a democratic society. Persons demanding this can safely be called insane. - Mithilesh Kumar, Delmar, NY, USA - Mar. 9, 2008

I totally disagree with the author's view that Bihar's politicians are to be blamed for its peoples plight. It's a much bigger and complex issue and goes much beyond Lalu and Rabri. The real reason as been the central govt policies and lack of interest towards development of Bihar since early seventies.

Ever since the socialist leaders of Bihar launched the movement against (JP movement) Indira Gandhi's emergency, there has been complete neglect and disregard for Bihar. Bihar has acquired the anti establishment and anti govt image, the media and pseudo-intellects of this country has played this stereotype ad nauseam.

North Bihar has frequent floods which I have heard since my childhood. In 60 yrs what has the Central govt done to solve this problem? Because of this flood problem no industrialist will invest his money in Bihar to see it swept away in flood the very next season. Please don't tell me that this cannot be solved. Do you see floods in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra? There was such a hue and cry when Mumbai had flood-like situation few year back. Bihar has to deal with this every year.

I am sure many of my fellow Biharis who are quick to blame every thing on Lalu would not have heard this central govt policy, it's called Freight Equalization Policy. What it means in short is that the raw material like coal, iron ore and other mineral will cost same whereever you buy in India. This is why you see steel plant in Vishakapatnam and not in Bihar or Jharkhand. Do you want to know where all the coal has been going from Bihar/Jharkhand since Independence? I have no clue. I guess it might have been burnt to power AC for Raj Thackeray and his Marathi manus in Mumbai. This policy has completely robbed Bihar of any strategic advantage it had because of the huge amount of mineral deposit in Jharkhand. All the industries that could have come up in Jharkhand and Bihar is now in Maharashtra and South India. Politicians in these developed states now want raw material from Bihar sans the laborers from Bihar. They do not want the unwanted weeds with the imports.

Bihar has been an agriculture based economy, service and manufacturing is almost non-existent thanks to the policies discussed above. The agricultural policy of the Govt has been absolutely pathetic. This is why this sector is growing by just 2% compared to manufacturing and service sectors which are growing by more then 10%. This is why the gap between Bihar and the rest of the developed India is increasing every year. To keep the price of food in check and make the middle class of cities like Delhi and Mumbai happy govt has heavily regulated the price it pays to farmers for his produce every year. Govt is willing to buy any shortage in food grain from global market at much higher price but unwilling to pay the same price to the farmers. This has made farming unsustainable and if you ever visit a village you will come to know quickly that what a farmer makes in a year is less then what Raj Thackeray driver would be making in a month. Today it's a wise decision to sell all your farming land and invest the money in stock market.

Lalu and lawlessness of Bihar is just symptoms of the policies of Govt of India. In short Bihar is been robbed and cheated for last 40 year by the wrong policies of the govt. But no politicians has the guts or even the realization of this problem to fight with the central govt for our justified rights because we the people of Bihar are not awakened. Because we do not care about all this. We are happy with easy scapegoats like Lalu. - Prasoon Kumar Choudhary, Utah, USA - Mar. 9, 2008

I completely agree with Mr. Prasoon Choudhary. Delhi's blame is much more. So called professionals, the economists and perspective planners

In addition to the despicable freight equalization scheme, there is also the case of lowest per capita allocation of development fund in each of the five year plan since independence without a single exception. The 45 km of Yamuna at Delhi, which had one bridge at the time of independence has around 20 now. But the 445 km of Ganga in Bihar has all of three and half - three full and one which starts in Bihar and ends in UP at Buxar. There is not a single IIT, central university or medical school started by the centre. Even the NIT in Bihar is a a sleight of hand which converted the British built BCE into an NIT. The PUSA institute built by the philanthropist Phillips of USA got shifted to Delhi as Bihar was supposed to be earth quake prone!!!

It is no accident that Bihar is as poor as it is. It is actually a wonder that it is not poorer!!! - Thakur Vikas Sinha - Mar. 9, 2008

You guys are blaming central government but can you guys answer my one question:

Is it not the responsibility of Bihar CM/MP's and MLA's to demand more funds if needed from central government for infrastructure development?

No one would give you your share until unless you fight for it and also show how do you make proper use of it.

Why Mr. Lalu/Paswan is supporting congress which didn't care for Bihar's development?

Lalu and Paswan are in central cabinet but what they did for Bihar in 4 years? Lalu and pseudo CM Rabri ruled Bihar for 15 years, can you guys mention any constructive work they did for the state?

They should have supported central government only on conditions that if they fund Bihar for its development then only they would support or else forget it.

I would ultimately blame Bihari Politicians they are the one who ignored the development process.

Even though Nitishji is not in central government he is taking initiative to get more funds for the development of infrastructure, colleges, universities, industries etc., but we don't know how much he would spend on real work and how much would into pockets of his ministers and other people.

Let's take example of states like Andhra, Karnataka etc where most of the times regional government ruled still the politicians were able to work for the development of the state. N T Rama Rao he was not into central govt but he worked at the ground level to develop Andhra and gave a new face to the state in 80's.

Grow up, instead of blaming others accept the truth. At least now we can come together and work for the state. - Ajay Kumar Patel - Mar. 11, 2008

I very much agree with Prasoon and Thakur.

India can't develop till parties like congress exist. Congress is anti-Bihar. Congress was anti-JP. Congress is very much responsible for driving Biharis out of Bihar by formulating anti-Bihar policies when in power. The current state of underdevelopment in Bihar is not just because of the inefficient state government. Even Biharis would find it not suitable to invest in Bihar. It's time Biharis stop taking the burden of nationalism on their shoulders and instead shoulder Bihari sub-nationalism to make better and prosperous Bihar for their future generations. It's the time we should stop talking lessons of nationalism from our emperor Ashok and religious leader Buddha, instead learn humanity from them for the betterment of socially deprived Biharis in Bihar. It's the time we learn from leaders like Sivasagar Raamgulaam. - Manoj Kumar - Mar. 11, 2008

Mr. Patel

I am no apologist of the inept politicians, but I can't agree with you here. We have blamed the politicians from Bihar enough, but why should we leave the so called professionals, the economists and the perspective planners at Delhi? They have failed us again, and again and again. I have had personally had a chance to interact with some of them. And I can tell from their response and their body language, that they are just not ready to accept their fault. And if they don't even accept their fault, is there any hope for betterment?

Take an 'academic' like Ashish Bose. This Ph D who has had great influence on the planning process came up with a term BIMARU to refer to Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP. He is actually hailed for his 'smart' thinking. Even official planning commission documents use this derogatory term. Do you think Bihar can ever hope to get a sympathetic ear, let alone its due share, so long as such biased characters are in positions of power? Have you ever heard anyone take him to task?

Ganga bridge at Patna was denied central funding in the mid seventies saying it is economically unfeasible. It took just six years for payback vs the normal 30 years for such infrastructure projects. Did the planning commission member who denied Bihar's rightful demand under political duress as Bihar was undergoing the JP movement at that time, was ever questioned?

Last year's flood was dubbed the worst in living memory. Where was the central govt? Where was P Chidambaram? Just compare the funds given to the coastal states during Tsunami and you will get the picture. And let me tell you, if you keep your ears close to the ground, Govt of Bihar did commendable work in spite of very limited resources.

We never hesitate to blame Lalu. But his feeble attempts to open a rail factory at Marahaura (less than 50 crore investment) or starting a passenger train to his native village is greeted by howls of protest by the MPs and obnoxious Delhi based journalists while ignoring the thousands of crores he is giving to Mumbai for MUTP I. For that matter, how many times have you heard a praise for Nitish for the good work that he has done since he came to power?

We have two options: we either agree that centre has a role to play in Bihar's development (which it has failed miserably every time) or think that they don't have a role and don't have any expectation from them. I for one have still not given up hope. Thanks. - Thakur Vikas Sinha - Mar. 11, 2008

Mr. Patel, with all due respect, let me give you a few pieces of advice.

First, I don't know how old are you but realize that there are people here who could be much older and experienced than you and understand Indian politics much more than you.

Second, generally speaking, it is not a good practice to comment on the comments of your own article. In fact, it is downright boorish. Check out the editorials of Times of India, New York Times, Guardian or any other respectable newspapers in the world. Let's say Kushwant Singh wrote a piece on Times of India and that enrages a lot of people who do not agree with him. He will receive tons of mails criticizing him, even abusing him, but you would never see him respond to any posts. By not responding, basically he is saying that it is my opinion and I am sticking to it whether you like it or not.

Finally, your usage of the phrase 'grow up' is very condescending, to say the least. Just who do you think you are? Maybe it's time for you to grow up and start writing like mature adults and not act like you are always on some sort of Yahoo group or Orkut where hundreds of thousands of keyboard commandos like yourself are pounding their ways away in the hope of false glory and recognition.

I have been here (patnadaily.com) from nearly its inception 7-8 years ago and I have seen some people who are not only good writers but who also have the ability to make their points without appearing to be Mr. know-it-all. Mr. T. V. Sinha is just one of them and whether I agree or disagree (which is yet to happen) with him, he has earned my respect for life. There are several other people who sadly are not seen here lately but have established themselves as not only intelligent but also very eloquent and persuasive and I miss their thoughts and presence.

So while many of us appreciate your concerns for Bihar, a little humility would go a long way. Treat it as an advice from someone who has been here on this earth for over six decades. - Anil Kumar - Mar. 11, 2008

I am glad to know many facts from all your comments. As Anil ji said, I am in my 20's and obviously don't have much experience in Indian Politics. Thakur ji seems to be very experience. Thanks for your comments and bringing up so many facts.

We all know there are hurdles in our way, we know congress is anti-Bihar. We all need to think now, what steps we can take to get back our pride and glory. We all know we can work hard, we have intelligent lot, more importantly we are strongly bond to Bihar and it's culture. Ones the crime rate is low and infrastructure is up to the mark, people would start investing in the state.

I personally believe, learn from the past and work for the future. Now that we know center and state governments failed in the past to develop Bihar, think how we can contribute for Bihar's development. Can we start up any project useful for the state? I had plans to support some of the poor students in my village for their education from coming academic year. If you have any plans or ideas please share with us so that we take some initiative for development. If every settled Bihari contribute for the state we can change Bihar a lot.

Thanks for all your comments. - Ajay Kumar Patel - Mar. 11, 2008

Discussion on this topic is now closed.