Where Nitish shows up in lantern flicker

Memories of the overturning wrought by Lalu are vivid in the village, especially in the older generation of Yadavs. “That we can sit on this chair and talk to the Babu Saheb (Rajput) is because Laluji gave us a voice, taught us how to walk and talk,” many say. But as this campaign unfolds, a restlessness is also visible, among the younger Yadavs, who have a fainter sense of history and who have travelled away from Madhepura, and Bihar, to study, and work.

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Prashant Yadav, 29, an engineer from Murho village who works in Delhi, says: “Laluji did nurture the backward castes, like a parent his child. But that isn’t enough. The child has grown up. Now he also needs to be provided higher education. It is Nitishji who has done that.” He adds: “Modiji is doing good work, especially in foreign policy. But he is the country’s prime minister, he cannot be chief minister of Bihar.”

In its most frictionless version, the Lalu-Nitish alliance is portrayed as a passing of the baton — as Nitish completing the work of empowering the disprivileged begun by Lalu. Yet, even in his own bastion, the story is not just about Lalu coming to Nitish’s aid — the RJD faithful are mainly flocking to Nitish because it is in his company that their own leader, once powerful, looks winnable again. That is, the Yadavs’ renewed bid for power, after long years in the cold, is now seen to crucially depend on Nitish.

It is for Nitish, after all, that in village after village, in Madhepura, and elsewhere in the state, a significant section of the EBCs and Mahadalits, and a large number of women among them, speak.

In the Mahadalit tola of Musahars on the edge of Murho village, Rita Devi, 19 years old, listens to the cautiously non-committal conversation on the elections in a group and interrupts aggressively: “Who made the road? Who got the aanganwadi here? Who gave old-age pension?” “Bahut sundar kaam kiye hain (he has done beautiful work). Nitish reined in the lumpens,” adds Anita Devi.

Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Musahar, who was installed by Nitish as chief minister after he resigned in the wake of the Lok Sabha setback, and then removed unceremoniously, is known here. But he doesn’t seem to inspire much enthusiasm even in his own community.

That the Lalu-Nitish coming together is not entirely seamless is also framed in Madhepura. Among the Yadavs, there is visible rancour against Nitish’s “pro-backward” tilt. The Yadavs, dominant among the Other Backward Classes, feel that the Nitish government’s policies have favoured those lower down the caste ladder — the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and the Mahadalits.

Randhir Kumar Yadav of Naadhi village says: “We find it difficult to get agricultural labour today, because the Nitish government has distributed Indira awas, free ration etc. So they can sit back… and others migrate.”

The other audible discontent among the Yadavs has to do with reservation in the panchayat for the EBCs brought in by the Nitish government, which has broken the upper and dominant caste monopoly over mukhiya posts. “Those who cannot even hold their own in front of the government officer, have been made mukhiya,” alleges Mithilesh Kumar Arya, who was himself unseated as mukhiya in Jorgama village after the seat was reserved.

And so, in this Yadav bastion, an older loyalty to Lalu must contend with unease with Nitish’s brand of social engineering and the new attraction among the young for Narendra Modi. On the other side, however, is the hardnosed calculation that the Nitish-Lalu combine is more winnable than Lalu alone would have been.

One thing, however, seems clear: Pappu Yadav, who broke away from Lalu’s RJD to float a separate outfit for this election, doesn’t seem to be making a dent. In a high stakes fight between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan, a vote for a third party is a vote wasted, many say. “Pappu was the creation of the feeling among the Yadavs that they needed a local bully of their own to contest the polls after the Rajputs elected (now jailed strongman) Anand Mohan Singh”, says Birender Yadav, suggesting that the Pappu phenomenon may have outlived its utility.

Come to Madhepura, also, to see how RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments about the need for a review of the policy of backward caste reservations, are playing on the ground. Through this campaign, Lalu has highlighted the statement and sought to use it to unite backward caste groups behind the Mahagathbandhan.

But in his own bastion of Madhepura, which is also home to the native village of the author of the Mandal Commission report on backward caste reservations — B P Mandal belonged to Murho — the thesis that Bhagwat’s comments are triggering a backward-vs-forward divide appears belied.

By all accounts, most people in the village have not heard about Bhagwat or his statement. Among those who have, it does not appear to have touched off any great anxiety about a rollback of reservations.

In the EBC-dominated village of Jairampur, in a mohalla from which many young men have been appointed as teachers in government schools, helped by the policy of reservations, Rajeshwar Mandal says: “I have heard that Amit Shah is saying they will remove reservations. But I am not worried. Reservations are for the nation’s benefit, not just for Bihar. They cannot be reversed, just like that.”

“It cannot be done, there will be an aandolan (uprising),” says Darvind, a teacher. Ramesh Kumar, also a teacher, says: “Nobody can tamper with reservations because their work is still undone — SCs and other lower castes have not been fully uplifted yet.”

Even as Lalu rails against Bhagwat, it would seem that in his own stronghold, the governance record of his ally could be a far stronger factor in consolidating backward caste support for the Mahagathbandhan than any insecurities stoked by his opponent.

Bhagwat’s comments may be failing to strike sparks for another reason: Given that education is still making only a faltering advance in large sections of lower castes, government jobs, and reservations in them, are still seen only as a dim and distant promise and possibility.