“Let’s go out for dinner today,” said my mother.
“It’s almost 9:30, it won’t be safe,” replied my dad.
That was Bihar, 10 years back.
With Lalu Prasad Yadav as the leader of Bihar, people were afraid to go out late at night, doctors didn’t want to set up their clinics, buying property was considered a huge mistake, and corruption had replaced blood in the veins of Bihar.
It won’t be surprising if history repeats itself. Lalu’s RJD is all set to come into power alongside Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). The so called ‘Grand Alliance’ will be taking control of Bihar, after defeating NDA in a roller coaster battle.
Now let’s try to understand the potential and credibility of this future coalition government.
Assuming the presence of Congress as negligible in the alliance, the two other major stake holders are Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Lalu in his 15 year rule ensured that Bihar gets sold out. Murder, kidnapping, extortion and rape were at an all time high, let alone be corruption. People were afraid to buy a car, because they thought it would seek attention of all the wrong people. Investing in property was a huge risk because of the illegal acquisition of land going on during that era.
These things may sound a little hypothetical now, but back then it was the reality. And any rational and sensible citizen of Bihar would agree with this. Gunda Raj existed big time.
Then came Nitish Kumar with the agenda of doing away all those crimes and corruption. Dethroning Lalu Prasad was more than enough an incentive for the people to bring Nitish into power. In the initial stages, Nitish did live up to his expectations to a great extent. You could actually see Bihar changing. People started trusting him.
That was the happy part of the story.
The moment Nitish Kumar’s chair came under the hammer, you could see desperation. In a very short period of time, the whole dynamics of politics in Bihar changed. I won’t get into explaining that, I will directly come to the conclusion.
Nitish teamed up with Lalu, and Modi became their biggest enemy.
Nitish Kumar, who would mock Lalu and talk about how can a criminal rule a state for 15 years is now seen giggling and laughing with him. If he cannot take a stand on one thing which people liked the most about him, how can his credibility be trusted?
It is pretty obvious that all he cares about is his position as Chief Minister in Bihar, and for that he can even lick his own spit, and that too proudly.
Being no political expert, I don’t know what would have happened if BJP had won. But after seeing Bihar so closely for many years, I can imagine what will happen if a guy like Lalu gets the charge of Bihar.
BJP winning 91 seats proves that there is a huge section of Bihar which is ready to accept the change, and want things to change. Bud sadly, the section which cannot see what Lau has done in the past and how spineless Nitish is, is even bigger.
The return of Gunda Raj is on the cards. Let’s see who becomes the biggest of them all.
