More than a pinch

My doctors tell me I should cut down on the salt. I respond that this is not possible for an Indian journalist today, we must take every pol...

My doctors tell me I should cut down on the salt. I respond that this is not possible for an Indian journalist today, we must take every political statement with whole tablespoons of the briny stuff. Does anyone believe the high-sounding sentiments that preceded the mini-Kurukshetras on the streets of Bhopal and Mumbai? I can scarcely believe that the lessons of Bihar have been forgotten barely a week after the results of the Vidhan Sabha polls came out.

The elections in Bihar, I thought, marked an end of the road for two factors that have dominated Indian politics for the past twenty years 8212; the sterile debate over communalism and the centrality of dynasty. Governance and development had taken centre-stage at long last, hadn8217;t they? And every political party had finally got the message, right? Apparently not! So, permit me to reiterate the lessons of Bihar as I saw them.

The United Progressive Alliance ministry has been in power for about a year and a half. The regime rests on the back of support from the Left Front and the Samajwadi Party, 8220;over 110 votes8221; as the weary refrain went a fortnight ago. It has become fairly obvious that the CPIM and the Congress have differences on everything from foreign policy to economic reform. The sole ideological veneer covering the cracks in this unlikely alliance is fear of the BJP Lord knows why, given that party8217;s sudden desire to emulate the lemming! But Bihar tore apart even that flimsy veil of principle, exposing naked ambitions.

Much ink has been spent on the way in which Ram Vilas Paswan and Laloo Prasad Yadav went their separate way, to the detriment of both. But the depths to which Indian politics has sunk becomes truly clear only when you consider the CPIM and the CPI. The two may pay lip service to the ideal of 8216;secularism8217; but they have very weird ideas of what it is supposed to be. While the Marxist Big Brother backed Laloo Prasad Yadav to the hilt, the CPI 8212; which actually has more of a presence in Bihar 8212; stood firmly by Ram Vilas Paswan. And what, pray tell, were these two actually supporting?

Laloo Prasad Yadav had a two-point platform, cement the Yadav vote and try to scare the Muslims. Ram Vilas Paswan was not as ambitious, he was content to stick to the Muslims alone. Put up a Muslim puppet as the Chief Ministerial candidate, his cynical calculation went, and that was all it would take to win enough seats to play kingmaker in the Vidhan Sabha. So enamoured is he of this thesis that he was repeating it long after the last vote had been counted; it was the Congress8217;s backing for Rabri Devi, he insisted, that had done all the damage.

Come to think of it, why shouldn8217;t Paswan continue to harp on the theme? Everyone else, not excluding the media, was doing much the same, confining the discussions to speculation about which community had voted for whom. Despite the efforts of the Election Commission, this was one of the dirtiest elections in the history of Bihar. No, there was no violence, but never before had the appeals to caste and creed been so naked. The Congress went to the extent of calculating not just the caste but even the sub-caste of its candidates. Asked to explain this, the best that the party8217;s embarrassed spokesperson could offer was that the list was not supposed to have been released. I suppose we should be glad that the Congress still has enough of a sense of shame to recognise that some things should not be brought out in the open. Ram Vilas Paswan and Laloo Prasad Yadav certainly displayed no such inhibitions.

All credit then to the voters of Bihar! Displaying a political sophistication that could teach a thing or two to other states, they voted for development over the sterile 8216;secularism8217; they have enjoyed for fifteen years. I suspect it was not so much a vote for the Janata Dal United-BJP alliance as it was a despairing vote for change. 70 per cent of the electorate in Siwan is Muslim. Hajipur is the Lok Sabha seat that once put Ram Vilas Paswan in the 8216;Guinness Book of World Records8217;. The voters of both put their faith in the 8220;communal8221; alliance.

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I refuse to believe that either Siwan or Hajipur was swayed by any grand ideology, certainly not by anything that the BJP could have said. If Nitish Kumar is Chief Minister in Patna today, it is because he was the only leader intelligent enough 8212; and humane enough 8212; to talk of 8216;development8217;. A few hours of water at a convenient hour of the day, roads that are something more than a poor joke, perhaps the possibility that they wouldn8217;t have to pay so many bribes, that is all that Bihar seems to want today. And Nitish Kumar seemed to be the only leader who cared about that kind of detail.

Five days ago, my friend Saeed Naqvi wondered aloud how long the 8220;quarrelling band8221; could stick together in Delhi when they were at each other8217;s throat in Bihar. My answer is that they will stick together just as long as voters are taken in by the 8216;secularism vs. communalism8217; arguments.

The gloomy lesson drawn from Bihar is that you must apparently hit rock bottom before development takes centre stage. Until that happy day I shall keep a packet of NaCl open while watching the latest political pronouncement.