Congrats, Bihar

A vitory of the people, said Nitish Kumar. It was good form for Bihar8217;s man of the moment to say so. But there is a truth to those word...

A vitory of the people, said Nitish Kumar. It was good form for Bihar8217;s man of the moment to say so. But there is a truth to those words that even the gracious victor may not fully acknowledge. In a state that has become a metaphor for stagnation as the rest of the country surges ahead in different ways, in a state that seemed to lie chillingly outside of and alien to the vocabulary and concerns of the national conversation, where institutional collapse was normalised, the real danger was this one: that the people of Bihar had lost faith in their own power to hold their rulers accountable, or bring in change. February8217;s indecisive tally 8212; the rebuff that didn8217;t go the full way, the victory that wasn8217;t handed out whole 8212; seemed to confirm this. And yet, that was probably the beginning of this November verdict. The JDU-led NDA8217;s landslide is an assertion of the people8217;s power in a democracy to puncture hubris. The people have wrested the initiative in Bihar. The winning party must accept this verdict with just as much humility as the one that has lost the election.

There is another hero in this moment. K.J. Rao made it possible for the Bihari, to whichever caste or community she belonged, to vote without fear. A genuinely clean election was a naive hope in Bihar. It took only one man8217;s determination to spectacularly dent the cynicism. But the kudos for Rao and the magnificent demands on Nitish can wait awhile, they are part of tomorrow8217;s story. As we take stock today, and before Bihar moves on to another day, look without malice at the fallen messiah.

From the time that he cobbled together his massive mandate in 1995, Laloo Prasad Yadav was a shrinking figure. From the leader of the largest coalition of the backward and disprivileged in a state of rampaging inequalities, he became leader of only the Yadavs. From a ruler who offered the promise of security to a fearful minority, he became one who preyed on the insecurities of Muslims. The claimant of JP8217;s legacy, the irreverent fighter who stuck his tongue out at the pomposities of bureaucracy and vain procedures was imprisoned by corruptions, scandals, court cases, bahubalis. He became a dynast, installed his wife in the chief minister8217;s office, allowed his brothers-in-law to become a law unto themselves. None of this happened despite him. Laloo Prasad Yadav must own responsibility for each of those steps back from the people, from what he could have been.