Rabri Raj, Part Two

Status Quo Ante is a sad situation to be in, if the status quo happens to be of the kind that characterised the Rabri Devi government. Is...

Status Quo Ante is a sad situation to be in, if the status quo happens to be of the kind that characterised the Rabri Devi government. Is the benighted state of Bihar then fated to witness a sickening repetition of the old situation in which caste carnage and administrative corruption, non-functioning public institutions and unchecked lumpenisation are the hallmarks of governance? The fact that the Rashtriya Janata Dal did not consider, even for a moment, the option of replacing the RJD president8217;s wife with a less compromised personage as chief minister eloquently reveals the party8217;s impatience with niceties like accountability and image.

It was under Chief Minister Rabri Devi, after all, that two ugly incidents of caste violence had occurred within a fortnight of each other, both in the district of Jehanabad. But Laloo Prasad Yadav clearly did not wish to weaken his own grasp on the state apparatus by letting anyone else apart from his wife head the RJD8217;s state legislature party. Indeed, status quo anteis an exceedingly comfortable situation for him personally, if not for his compatriots in the state.

Yadav, with all the zeal of a man who has been given a new lease of life, now promises to make amends to the people of Jehanabad. In a Press statement made in his characteristically impromptu manner, Yadav promised to distribute 400 acres of land to those who suffered from caste violence in the district within a fortnight of the RJD government being sworn in.

He says he will release all those Naxalites, now in police custody, who are not facing charges of murder. He has also sworn that both he and his wife will undertake a padyatra in Jehanabad district as a special gesture to the local people. But securing the safety of the Dalit communities, not just in Jehanabad but in the entire state, requires more than gimmickry.

Nothing in the region will change unless the state government is able to break the back of the Ranvir Sena and empower the most marginalised communities in the state to assert themselvesagainst its terror. This would, in turn, neutralise the influence of the various Naxalite outfits of the region. Unfortunately, neither Yadav nor his wife has given the people of the state any reason to hope that this will indeed be done.

The cat-and-mouse game that has been going on between Raj Bhavan and 1, Anne Marg is also something that Bihar can do without. To have a known RSS activist, who by the admission of the Union home minister himself is a political appointee, preside as governor over the state has created mistrust and politicking of the lowest kind.

Governor S.S. Bhandari, who quickly effected a second major administrative shake up in the state even as he knew that President8217;s rule in Bihar would soon be revoked, has been thoroughly discredited in his handling of the crisis. In the face of Bhandari8217;s stated reluctance to demit office, it may be useful to remind him of the fate of then Andhra Pradesh Governor Ram Lal. Having moved in August 1984 to dissolve the Andhra assembly when N.T. RamaRao was the chief minister, Ram Lal lost his post the moment NTR managed to get back to power a month later. Honour and propriety demand that Bhandari pack his bags.