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Journalism of Courage
Live television coverage of street protests by Patna children, demanding the release of an abducted schoolmate, is the last thing RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav needs on the eve of the Assembly polls in Bihar as he seeks another term for his wife and party. Not in 15 years of RJD rule has Laloo been confronted by such a spectacle: images of children telling the world how unsafe Bihar is.
In a city that has always known choked drains and muck on streets, an oxygen parlour is gross, very removed from reality. So she no longer talks about it, simply nodding her head each time mother says she wants Samyukta home straight from school.
But the mother can8217;t shut out her daughter8217;s curiosity over the release of Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav. 8216;8216;When they do release it, my friends and I plan to go to the cinema hall. I just hope it shows the truth about Bihar,8217;8217; says Samyukta.
| 8216;They start the day discussing Bush and Iraq, then Palestine. Musharraf8217;s next. Finally, the talk shifts to Bihar. Classes are rarely held.8217; A college official in Hajipur, on his students |
Welcome to the world8217;s slogan factory
AT the party offices of Laloo8217;s rivals, the 8216;8216;truth about Bihar8217;8217; is already being woven into pre-poll speeches of leaders. The LJP8217;s Ram Vilas Paswan, the JDU8217;s Nitish Kumar and the BJP8217;s Arun Jaitley are ramming home the message: Your children are no longer safe.Wait till Uma Bharati begins her road shows, BJP men tell you. Just wait.
Outside the RJD office, angry partymen jab fingers at a newspaper advertisement of the JDU-BJP combine. 8216;8216;What lies,8217;8217; says one and then reads it aloud: 8216;8216;15 saal, bura haal. Sarkar badlein, Bihar badlega 8230; Is chunav mein ya to apne bachchon ke bhavishya par bhi taala jad dijiye, ya phir is sarkar ko chalta kijiye This election, either seal the fate of your children or tell this government to go.8217;8217;
THE leaders rarely spend time in Patna. The battles have to be fought elsewhere. So every morning, they head for the airport where you can spot helicopters, of every hue and make, in numbers rarely seen in these parts. By dusk, the leaders and choppers are back from the interiors, filling waiting reporters with details of the 8216;8216;huge response8217;8217; and 8216;8216;the scenes you missed8217;8217;.
The day8217;s work done, everyone retires satisfied.
| 8216;Nothing new, it8217;s the same manifesto every election. If you ask the parties why the replay, they tell you nothing has changed in five years. Therefore the need to repeat promises8217; |
Politics as career, politics as hobby.
BUT nearer Patna, in a college in Hajipur, the poll dissection is already on. Students never go near the classroom, preferring the grounds outside for the adda that takes up all of college hours.
A senior official, who once tried to talk the college out of this daily routine, provides a vivid description: 8216;8216;They start the day discussing Bush and Iraq, then Palestine. Musharraf8217;s doublespeak is next. And finally, the talk shifts to Bihar. Classes are rarely held.8217;8217;
8216;8216;I once found a lecturer scrawling something on the board. Out of sheer curiosity, I peeped in. There was only one student in the entire class. If you ask the lecturers, they blame the students. If you ask the students, they say the lecturers don8217;t show up. How do you expect this state to move?8217;8217;
IN the same town 8212; Hajipur is the parliamentary constituency of Ram Vilas Paswan whose Lok Janshakti Party or LJP claims it8217;s the RJD8217;s principal challenger this election 8212; teachers complain about not being paid salaries for four months.
Officials say all that has been sorted out. 8216;8216;A 40-day strike by treasury employees was the reason. The strike8217;s over and they will all get their salaries.8217;8217;
Perhaps that8217;s why Bush and Mahmoud Abbas are still Hajipur8217;s worry.
In Rabri land, foxes don8217;t built bridges
AND some distance away from Hajipur, in Raghopur diara in the middle of the Ganga, Chief Minister Rabri Devi may have to explain to voters what she8217;s doing about the fox menace in her constituency. An estimated 300 people have been attacked by foxes in the past four months, say district officials.
To reach the Raghopur diara, you have to take a boat or use the pontoon bridge they place every year after the monsoon. There8217;s no all-weather bridge to the chief minister8217;s constituency.
Officials estimate Rs 20 crore can fix this problem. But there are related issues: where will the money come from? When will it come? How will they tackle the business of getting people to vacate areas where the bridge-ends must rest?
Until then, Raghopur will make do with the boat and boat-bridge.
BHOLA Prasad Rai, a tent-house owner in Rustampur, says Raghopur8217;s young men have nowhere to go. 8216;8216;There are no factories here. So boys from my village go to Fatuah or Patna to work. They are daily wagers at the glass or iron factories. If only there was a factory here, they would be spared that long haul everyday.8217;8217;
Business in Bihar? Er, you joking?
BACK in Patna, promises of jobs, industry, roads are all being aired by parties as they release their respective poll manifestos. Local reporters know it by rote and don8217;t even bother to file: 8216;8216;There8217;s nothing new, it8217;s the same manifesto every election. If you ask the parties why the replay, they will tell you that nothing changed in the past five years and, therefore, the need to repeat the promises.8217;8217;
IF you check on the flight of business, it again boils down to a slanging match between the poll rivals. MNC billboards are missing from Patna streets and Gurgaon suddenly looks whole lightyears away.
8216;8216;Guarantee security, guarantee regular power supply, only then will it make business sense to come to Bihar,8217;8217; says an industrialist. In the same breath, he tells you he doesn8217;t foresee it happening in the near future.
Jharkhand8217;s creation, complete with south Bihar8217;s natural resources, has robbed this state of its only showcase. When the BJP8217;s Pramod Mahajan said in Patna this week that Biharis crowd the worldspace from Mumbai to Silicon Valley, everyone here nodded: he8217;s not wrong, there8217;s hope yet for Bihar. Yet they all added: he is simply settling political scores.
IN the battle for control of Bihar, you can8217;t fail to detect a certain weariness. It comes from an overdose of too much politics and too many politicians.
At the Patna airport, as the rain pours down and grounds the campaign helicopters, a smile crosses the guard8217;s face: 8216;8216;Serves them right if they don8217;t get to fly today. Now they will all regret not fixing Bihar8217;s roads.8217;8217;
