Abduction of Bihar

The commotion in political backrooms and at political iftars has already announced the Bihar elections. Everyone8217;s tracking Ram Vilas Paswan, the man in the cusp of political possibilities. The NDA woos him with unconcealed ardour while he teeters tantalisingly on the edge of the UPA, not on speaking terms with its stalwart constituent, Laloo Prasad Yadav. Will Paswan become the fulcrum of the proposed anti-Laloo consolidation? Will there be a formal pre-poll alliance against Laloo at all or a series of electoral adjustments striving for the same effect, by another name? As those questions pile up, the kidnapping of two senior officials of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, following close on the heels of the murder of a doctor, which sent doctors in the state on a flash strike, is a reality check.

It would be an abdication, indeed, if the Bihar elections were to be discussed only in the dry and sanitised vocabulary of pollsters and other election pundits. Of course, it is important to monitor the positioning of each party on the field and the bargains they strike with each other. But as elections draw closer, it is important to turn the full glare on the question that must surely inform and propel all the political action: after three consecutive terms as chief minister, de facto and de jure, has Laloo Prasad Yadav kept his tryst with the people? If not, what is the alternative to the RJD being offered in the state? Is it only to be Laloo versus anti-Laloo in Bihar? Or will the beleaguered voter be given the chance to make a more meaningful choice?

The abduction of the NHPC officials is only the latest piece of bad news from a state which has become routinised in public discussion as 8220;lawless8221;. It is the latest reminder that you can be affluent in Bihar only at your own peril. The unchecked violence against the landless and Dalits narrates the same story from the other end. In each instance, the state looks on mutely when it is not itself found to be implicated in the crime. A decade and a half after Laloo Prasad Yadav swept Bihar with promises of social justice and empowerment, Bihar is unsafe for both. In the build-up to elections, this must be the talking point.