A better Bihar for a better India

If there was one state which had got rotten in the last 10 years in India , it has been Bihar. Ok Kerala comes a close second in terms of Industrialization and opening up of the small economy. But it makes it up with the very high Human Development Index, which is comparable to many European countries and other developed countries. And it is exactly here that Bihar scores very poor. In fact there has been utter chaos of the management of the state.

There is this article by Prakash Jha in the Express today speaking of what he thinks has been happening in the state which was once the hub of education. (ya that goes a long long way back). Prakash Jha has been making some good movies on social causes, contesting elections unsuccessfully and his latest movie is something I am looking forward to this year. It is on the organized kidnapping market in Bihar.

I have a lot of friends from that state and I have to admit that most of them topped in different branches in REC. And there is enough examples of IAS officers from Bihar. So who is to blame? Laloo has been playing the caste card for long now. BJP was plain lucky to be the beneficiary this time because the people in that state has been fed up of the Laloo regime. An party which was in the opposition would have won this time. It doesn’t mean that BJP will not be corrupt. They will be, but not to the extent of what Laloo did, because they would like to go back to the masses after 5 years again.

Anyway, Bihar needed a break from Laloo. India needed a break from Laloo. Or for that matter it is high time India gave a break to the old and crumbling politicians in their parties. I was reading the newspaper here in Singapore, where the reporter has expressed surprise at the visiting Ex Prime Minister of Singapore finding young MPs in India. Well we are changing. How fast we do it will determine where we are in the race with China.

I have never been to Patna, but have heard enough stories of the place and other villages that it really gives you the jitters. Jamshedpur has been protected by what the Tatas have been doing there. Hence Jharkand to some extent has been shielded. There has been some really good movies which have shown the life and times of Bihar/UP. Most of them have been pretty low profile. One that comes to mind immediately (maybe because it is very recent) is Sehar. Was it eastern UP rather than Bihar? Well it is a beautiful movie with Arshad Warsi playing a subdued role to perfection.

Lets hope some changes will happen now in Bihar. Don’t expect anything dramatic.

~sujith