Reality struck us when few days back news channels showed the shocking acts of cowardice on the streets of Maharastra.People from Bihar and North Indian origin were brutally attacked, roughed up and forced to leave the state on the call of the local Politicians and Goons in the name of regional pride. The state and central govt. has been mute spectator and the nation is not even aware of the gravity of the issue as the issue has not been given adequate coverage.

Nitin Chandra has come up with a documentary to highlight the plight of Bihari outside Bihar and how the incident in Mumbai has forced us to rethink about our identity. This is not an issue of Bihar, this threatens the existence of our great country and we need to rise above region and state to have an objective assessment of this grave crisis of regional identity.

It’s scary and alarming how politicians and newsmongers can create havoc and tarnish the social fabric of our nation. Be it in the name of religion, caste, region, language or state, we keep reminding the world that despite being a progressive plural society some parochial and self serving scum continue to disturb the harmony of this great country.

How can a citizen be proud of his country when his own fellow countrymen are killed in the name of state and language?

Isn’t it a shame that state sponsored pogrom is being directed against North Indians and people are scared to speak in Hindi, our national language, in our own country?

What would India stand for if we start hate campaigns in the name of religion, language and region?

What message are we giving to our young generation when people are talking about reservations in the name of caste and region?

On one hand we keep shouting that India is a land of great opportunity and invite foreign investors while on the other hand we are debarring and killing our own countrymen just because they come from the state called Bihar.It’s a shame that very few people are coming forward and speaking their mind out on this issue. The same bunch of social glitterati , chatterati which would speak till death on every petty issue has suddenly gone into shell as it just doesn’t matter to many when the hands of a hawker are chopped off just because he belongs to Bihar and earns his daily livelihood by sweating it out every day.

While we keep blabbering about lead India campaign but very few come forward to lend a helping hand to the victims of this hate campaign. The effete leadership of this country is comfortably numb to the pain and agony of millions who have been facing the odds and humiliations everyday but we are basking in the glory of the new tax proposal as it helps us to become cozier than ever before. In my own country we are treated as migrants and we are subject to discriminations just because we don’t speak a particular language.

What’s the fault of the millions of Indians if they have been born in a less privileged state?

Bloody shame!! We are still proud to be Indian.

It’s interesting to observe the piquant dichotomy which Bihar presents to the world. On one hand a media report observed how the lack of proper transportation facility in rural Bihar makes life difficult for people and so they end up circumventing the system to beat the travel blues.

On the other hand Railways have recently introduced a new high-tech system through which passengers can procure their reserved-journey tickets from ATM counters. Patna Junction is likely to have this facility soon, said Danapur DRM B D Garg. According to Garg, the railways have introduced this system with an aim to provide more facilities to passengers as well as to reduce rush of passengers at the main computerised reservation counters. Patna Junction has been allotted eight ATM counters of which three have already started functioning for purposes other than the reserved-journey tickets.

Despite the progress which the railways have made, chances are that the rest of country is more likely to recall the first incident in which folks in rural Bihar stop the train for boarding by waving Rs 20 note. But will someone represent Bihar for the good things and changes are taking place on ground.

Recent anti corruption drive against the govt officials have helped in changing the impression of the executive functionaries in the state. Over 200 officials have been caught red-handed while accepting bribe during the drive which began in August 2006, Additional Director General (Vigilance) Neelmani said.

We are aware of the stupendous super human efforts of late Dashrath Manjhi from Gaya in Bihar who tore open a 300-feet-high hill to create a one-km passage.Now we have another legend from Bihar who has achieved something which is again an unique achievement in itself.

A simple farmer who owned 12 bighas of land 15 years ago and now has only five bighas, he got entangled in the regular tide of crime in his village and surrounding villages. His elder son, who kept fighting pitched battles for supremacy with gangsters in the nearby villages, was killed. Kamaleshwari had to sell seven bighas of his land to fight court cases. Thoroughly disgusted, he once decided not to fight any court cases and to rather concentrate on “something constructive”.

Even as stories about the pond and the old man’s feat keep being proudly narrated in various meetings of politicians and officials in Patna, local officials and elected leaders have hardly visited the pond. Neither the sarpanch nor the mukhiya have come calling, let alone the MLAs and ministers. There was some talk about recommending his name for felicitation by the government, but nothing has happened so far. “I want some development in this village. We need wires on the electricity poles, good roads and fish in this pond. I want to meet the chief minister at his Janata Ka Durbar in Patna soon,” said Kamaleshwari.

Kudos to the effort of this Hero who dared to think the impossible and break the shakles of conventional wisdom.

It’s hearting to see the mainstream media doing some fact finding to bring out the positives which have been happening in Bihar but most of our friends conveniently choose to ignore.Good to see the prominence which is being given to the some of the areas where Bihar has taken lead and can give a lesson or two to others.

Amarnathy Tiwari talks about some of the areas where Bihar has taken a lead and has set an example for others to follow.

Bihar is the only state in India to have 50% of places in local municipal bodies reserved for women. The present government in Bihar, run by the Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), began the policy of reserving half of local municipal body seats for women. Today half of the 262,000 elected councillors to local municipalities in the state are women.

Fast track courts in Bihar have convicted and sentenced more criminals than courts in any other Indian state in the past 18 months. Between January 2006 and May 2007, a total of 11,665 criminals were convicted through speedy trials and sent to prison.More than 2,500 were sentenced to life, and 21 others given the death penalty. Critics of the speedy trials express concerns about the quality of evidence and justice being dispensed in such a short time in a country where court cases typically drag on for years. The fastest judgement in Bihar was delivered by a court in 13 days flat from the date of the incident.

Bihar is the only state in India where retired soldiers are being hired as policemen to stem the crime wave.They mostly comprise the "special auxiliary police" force - about 5,000 retired soldiers were hired last year and sent to help police various districts.Since then this special force has earned plaudits for controlling crime and taking on Maoist rebels. The government is planning to hire another 11,500 ex-soldiers soon to bolster the force. On average about 100 of these soldiers-turned-policemen have been deployed in each district.

Sudha, a dairy co-operative, is a shining exception and one of the most successful exercises of its kind in India. Launched in 1993, the co-operative's revenues from a range of milk and milk products has risen from $73.5m in 2001-2002 to $136m today. The co-operative has 6,000 outlets covering 84 towns in the state.More than 260,000 milk farmers in the state are members of the co-operative, and a private bank has even launched a pension scheme for them.

Did you know that a simplified tax system conceived and launched in Bihar is now being emulated by Sri Lanka and various African countries and has been lauded by the United Nations? Introduced by the municipality of Patna, the state capital, in 1993, the tax system, locally known as the "Patna model of taxation" simplifies property tax rates on the basis of the local area and use of property.

Property is classified according to its location, construction, use (residential or commercial), and rates fixed accordingly. States like Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh have adopted the same property tax model. The UN was so impressed by the taxation model that it gave a $30,000 award to Bihar for introducing this method.

After the turn of British exploration giant Cairn Energy Search (CESL), now the Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) will start exploration for crude reserves in the economically backward state of Bihar, reports Business Standard.

Bihar is now poised to emerge as one of India's next major destinations for oil and natural gas reserves. The state's energy minister Brijendra Prasad Yadav said ONGC would shortly seek a no-objection-certificate (NOC) for exploration of crude oil reserves in the Purnia basin.

Yadav said there is a huge possibility of the presence of large quantities of petroleum and natural gas reserves in the eastern district of Purnia. Two months back, the Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy was commissioned for the first phase of exploration of a 15,500 sq km area in Bihar`s Ganga basin. Cairn Energy has been granted a seven-year licence for the Purnia basin comprising 13 districts.

The company's proposal, submitted two years back, was delayed due to various technical reasons. It had to be cleared by the ministry of defence, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the Atomic Energy Department, said Yadav

It great to see the innovative efforts of Irfan Alam who has come up with unique idea of rickshaws with seat belt, first aid kit, lilting music, insurance cover for driver and passenger and much more.

Social Innovation of this type gives just us the idea about the untapped potential which exists in Bihar.Irfan's effort not only gives this age old profession a new face but also brings lot of respect to the profession. It symbolizes the changing face of Bihar where every individual is given its due place in society as we are rising above the social stigmas of caste and creed in our journey to create a socially equitable state.

Nearly 100 such cycle rickshaws are seen traversing the city roads, after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the ‘Cycle Rickshaw project – Samman’ from Sheikhpura House in Patna.

The innovative project, conceived by Irfan Alam, a 25-year-old youth from Begusarai, who wore the Zee TV’s ‘Business Baazigar’ crown, is being supported by the State Government.An MBA from Pondicherry, having done his management development programme from IIM-A, Irfan met Nitish when the latter visited the institute last November.

Irfan, who is the founder and director of Samman Foundation, a New Delhi-based NGO, wants to take the environment-friendly cycle rickshaw to the luxury lane by providing facilities like soft drink, mineral water, newspaper and first aid in a rickshaw. The project, given the go-ahead even by Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, is working fine in the New Capital Region (NCR). Irfan is very passionate about his project. "We were in touch with IIT (Delhi & Guwahati), the National Innovative Foundation (Ahmedabad) and the Nimbkar Agriculture Research Institute (Phaltan, Maharashtra) to develop a new prototype of cycle-rickshaw, which could be converted into a modern mode of transport.

The project not only aims at making life better for rickshaw pullers, but also making rickshaw a marketing engine and to convert a pathetic travel into joy ride.

In last one year, with the change of government in Bihar, a lot of hope and aspiration has come to surface in the life of Bihar and Biharis. Apart from the efforts of the government, a select group of passionate Bihari intelligentsia scattered around the globe is making the concept of a flat world a reality and working toward bringing back the past glory of Bihar as a land of wisdom, wealth, opportunity, abundance, governance, and cultural heritage. And it has already started making some small but meaningful impact.

But with the hope there is a concern too. From the interaction I had had with numerous Biharis at various stages of their life and career, it seems that a large number of them, particularly young and well educated, are either not interested in Bihar or show utter pessimism about Bihar's future. Some typical responses are 'There is nothing in Bihar', 'it’s too late', 'development in Bihar is next to impossible', etc. This reasoning is devoid of logic. It smacks of ignorance, stereotyping, and a lack of will and conviction.

These young people educated in top colleges of India often attribute 'criminalization of politics and serious law and order problem' as the root cause of all problems of Bihar. Nothing can be more wrong and preposterous. These children of economically liberated India, devoid of knowledge of the post-independence developmental economic policies of Indian government, believe an effect to be a cause. They believe that fortunes of Bihar tumbled in the last 20 years when the truth is that the script of this tragedy was written by the learned economic planners of India in 50s, 60s, and 70s through unjust allocation of developmental resources. Take an example: In 1955, the total national outlay for irrigation was Rs.29106 lakhs. Of this, Punjab got 38% while Bihar got just 4.5% even though Bihar was 3.5 times larger than Punjab. The result: Almost 76% of Punjab’s land is under irrigation while just 41% of Bihar’s land is irrigated. Or, take the Freight Equalization Scheme that applied to Steel and Coal and remained in vogue till 1991. This policy of consumers paying the same freight whether the coal was transported from Jharia to Dhanbad or Jharia to Vishakhapatnam broke the back of industry development in Bihar. Many of us are blissfully ignorant of numerous historical injustices of this kind meted out to Bihar by the economic planners.

They talk of lack of opportunities in Bihar and assert that opportunities should first be created before they can exploit them. This is passive mentality. If Bihar has to progress then opportunities will have to be created and tapped by Biharis themselves. If one can't help oneself, no body can. Others can help, they can support, but they cannot set your house in order. This is something all Biharis need to understand. I am reminded of the old story of two shoe salesmen who went to a place where aboriginals existed. The first sales man saw that no one wore shoes and reasoned that there was no market for shoes while the second one saw a huge market because no one wore shoes! We have to create our own opportunities. Whining and complaining will not help but action orientation will and this is what is expected from the younger generation of well educated, smart, and suave Biharis. They should feel proud of their Bihari roots and act with courage and conviction.

Another issue is entrepreneurship development. In Bihar, people view entrepreneurship as something that smart, educated people don’t do. This has to change and entrepreneurship has to be accorded its due status. With the pool of well educated and technically qualified young Biharis, there is no reason why entrepreneurship development can't take place in Bihar. The opportunities are immense though they might not be so obvious. An entrepreneurial wave can turn Bihar into the vegetable capital of India. Similar big opportunities are in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, fruits, agro-processing sectors. The need of the hour is not large scale entrepreneurial ventures but small grassroots level ventures that ensure wealth generation along with economic and social development of the local community. We don’t need 10 investments of Rs.100 crores each; but 100 investments of Rs.10 crores each. Spread of investment is key not the quantum.

Ultimately, what Bihar and Biharis need is the Nike philosophy – Just Do It! And may I modify it a bit – JUST DO IT WITH PRIDE AND CONVICTION!

By Mayank Krishna

On republic day last year, I had expressed my angst at the unfair treatment being meted to Bihar and Biharis in Patna Daily. Since then, Bihar has moved forward. There are signs of positive change, for example an IIT for Bihar, higher planned allocation for development and the improved conviction rate of criminals.

Yet my heart still bleeds this republic day. There is the most unfortunate killing of our labourers in Assam who still have to go to that inhospitable land in search of livelihood. From Rajdeep Sardesai using Bihar as a negative adjective to the children of migrant labourers dying inhuman deaths in Nithari and Muktsar, Punjab, unable to even have their cases registered with the police, there are any numbers of injustices meted out to Biharis. In spite of the increased allocation to Bihar for development in the last one year, it continues to languish at the bottom in terms of the per capita allocation by the planning commission. There would still be no IARI lab in Bihar though it is an agricultural state. But there seldom has been any protest against these. What could be the reasons for this?

Bihar is at a cross road where we have to try to consolidate the gains of the past year and try to analyze what has held it back for so many years. Why is it that when a Lalu Yadav starts a Garib Rath for Bihar or a Nitish Kumar starts the HQ of a railway zone in Bihar, there is widespread criticism, but when a Chidambaram and a Maran join hands to ensure 90% of all mobile phones for the booming market gets manufactured in Tamil Nadu, nobody raises an eyebrow? Why do many of our own Bihari brethren think asking for equal right for Biharis or development in Bihar is akin to rebelling against India?

The backwardness of Bihar and the ill treatment meted to Biharis, to me, appears rooted in psychology - both our own as well as those of non Bihari Indians. Let me try to delve a little deeper into the psychological make up and see what lies there.

As a school student in seventies, I heard the proposed Ganga Bridge at Patna was refused funding by the central planning commission. I wanted to write a letter to newspapers criticizing the decision. But seniors around me, at school and at home, restrained me, saying people at Delhi must have taken all issues in consideration before taking this decision. I wanted to protest the freight equalization scheme, but found little understanding of this sentiment around me.

What holds us back from asking our share? What is it that makes us believe the central government would always be fair?" Why do we hesitate to question its actions in a logical manner? Why the hurry to give away our share so readily? What is it that makes giving away the strategic advantages of Bihar so attractive for our leaders?

Is it lack of understanding of Bihar's strategic advantage that causes it's leders to give it away so easily? That would be really sad for the land of Chanakya. Does Bihari culture over romanticize the act of giving? Or is it the colonial hangover which makes us believe some distant master would be fair to us and set our house in order?

Fact is, even a mother does not lactate unless the child cries.

The second negative trait that I see is debating the wrong question. For close to four decades, the three issues that have been bandied about as the cause of lack of development of Bihar are: Casteism, Lack of land reforms and criminalisation of politics. This endless debate has taken us nowhere. Meanwhile so many other relevant questions have not even been debated. For example, why are there only three and a half bridges over Ganga in Bihar whereas there are over fifteen in Uttar Pradesh? Why is the most comprehensive irrigation system in Bihar still the British built Son Command Canal system? Why is there no protest when Patna Rice is registered as a trademark in US while there is such a hue and cry over Basmati? Why is there no comprehensive dialogue with Nepal for flood control? Why does the national integration song "Mile Sur Mera" have no Bihari symbols? I could go on and on, but the point I wantto illustrate is that we have been asking the wrong questions for decades without any tangible gains in terms of the economic uplift of our masses.

Let me move to the next negative psychological trait, the inability to hail true success. Mr Neelkanth Prasad, the brilliant engineer, kept the dream of the Ganga Bridge at Patna alive and managed to get it built in spite of severe resource constraints. But does anybody remember his outstanding contribution? Rajkumar Shukla brought Gandhi to Champaran and made him the mass leader. Do we ever pause to think of his massive contribution? And thereby we fail to consolidate success and encourage desirable behaviour.

Take the recent case of an IIT in Bihar. When I hailed MA Fatmi's promise to bring IIT to Bihar, several people implied I was naive to believe Fatmi. Now when he has actually delivered, one would expect some kudos for him. But no, now there is another set of pessimists saying bringing IIT to Bihar has no relevance!!! Govt of Bihar has been trying to bring a semblance of order for the last year. There are enough statistics to suggest Bihar has improved. But read the pessimistic comments. Police solves the case of kidnapping of a twelve year old Kankarbagh boy and nabs the killer even while he was preparing to strike again. CNN IBN gives it a negative twist. We seem to have an inability to celebrate success. Worse, an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!!

Another is self flagellation or the self blame even for things that are not in our own hand. Like a raped woman, somehow, when things go wrong, we tend to blame ourselves, not realizing there are situations where the blame lies outside. And the outsiders, particularly the 'national' English language press from Delhi and Mumbai, like the moronic UP police, lay the blame on the 'provocative' dress or other such imagined 'crime' for the situation. The labourers get killed in Assam and we blame Bihar's backwardness. Did the labourer cause Bihar's backwardness? Is he wrong is seeking a better livelihood for himself? How come the same trait of seeking a fortune in another land in a Punjabi or a Marwari is hailed as a positive trait? This is not to deny responsibility for own's action. For example, if a student at Gaya does not study hard, he is not going to get into an IIT. But if some idiot at JEE committee feels there is something wrong just because there are too many successes from Gaya and cancels the centre, the only fair solution is to expose that idiot and set things right, rather than blame ourselves.

After all, Bihar is the heart of India, appropriately placed a little to the left of centre in the upper part of the map of India. Today, a lot of people are asphyxiating the heart not realising the whole body would be dead if the heart stops functioning. We have to ourselves believe and make others realize that it is quite possible to be pro Bihari and yet be pro India. But unfortunately, the voice of reason and logic that can make it happen is lost in the din of self serving media. When Nitish Kumar calls up Manmohan to seek justice for the slain Biharis in Assam, 'national' media calls it 'chita ki aag mein rajnaitik roti sekna'. And in the process, unfortunately, time is running out.

Thus to me, the backwardness of Bihar and the ill treatment meted to Biharis appears rooted in psychology - both our own as well as those of non Bihari Indians. Till we can zero in on the underlying reasons and take corrective action, things are not going to change.

By

Thakur Vikas Sinha
Powai, Mumbai