Road to Jharkhand

The Bihar Assembly8217;s approval of the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill 2000 is welcome. It means the political aspirations of the people of south Bihar may yet be met. It gives people in what will be two halves of Bihar the chance to get better governments. A long and bitter political battle preceded the resolutions in both Houses. Over the decades under the dominant influence of politicians from north and central Bihar, lip service was paid to the welfare of the tribal people in the south and their demand for a separate state was systematically squashed. This week during the debate in the Assembly every party supported Jharkhand state. As Laloo Prasad Yadav8217;s volte face at Congress insistence shows, consensus would never have been achieved but for the fact that there are no dominant political parties any more; regional and national parties, reduced to pale shadows of their former selves, are forced to surrender their empires. Bihar is too big and unwieldy to manage. Division is essential, apart from everythingelse, because smaller states can be administered better.

As hard as the battle has been so far an even harder battle lies ahead after Parliament passes the Bill. Central and state leaders should start planning immediately to deal with the mind-boggling problems both halves of the state are going to confront. What is left of Bihar will be a predominantly agricultural state with even fewer prospects of rising out of its backwardness than before. The improbable sum of Rs 1,79,900 crore which the Rabri Devi government demands from the Centre as compensation tells the whole story. As much as truncated Bihar will need every paise of that sum, it will not get it. Even were it by some miracle to get such a sum, so dysfunctional are its institutions and ramshackle its infrastructure, it simply will not be able to absorb the funds. Nevertheless, Bihar cannot be left to sink. Something must be done.

With good economic management, the new state called Jharkhand in preference to 8220;Vanachal8221;, the BJP8217;s coinage should fare better within a fairly short time. Not only does it have the mineral wealth, it has the major share of medium and heavy industry and infrastructure assets. Jharkhand8217;s political problems, however, are far from resolved. The historical impetus behind Jharkhand has been the conviction among tribal people that they would only get full political representation in a separate state. Over the years their economic marginalisation has strengthened that conviction. With non-tribals far outnumbering tribals in the population of the 18 districts of south Bihar today, political mechanisms are required to redress the imbalance. Unless they are designed quickly, Jharkhandis are liable to think their victory has turned to sawdust.

During the debate on the Bill there was grand-standing on this issue but no serious intent to find solutions. Both factions of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha are urging that Parliament pass the Bill as it stands during the current session and will be impatient with anything that causes a delay. Everything points to Jharkhand state waking up the morning after with a massive headache.