Bihar leads India

The NDA in Bihar has received a massive mandate,unprecedented not only in north India’s fragmented politics,but by any standards. Whenever an incumbent wins an election,there’s something there to be learned. When the victory is so overwhelming,the lessons are so much stronger. And the lessons here are embodied in the ideas associated with,and pushed by,Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,who stayed resolutely on-message throughout the campaign. An entire swirl of crucial questions: will caste-based mobilisation stay central? Is a politics of delivery,of governance possible? Is sub-nationalism gaining power in the politics of identity? For each of these questions,Nitish has a reply. In his post-victory press conference,the calm grace with which he took his triumph did not stop him from driving his points home. Like other regional leaders who have been successful recently,Nitish did not interpret his victory as one for just the poor or the historically disadvantaged,or some other telegraphing of a narrower caste- or class-based base,but for all those who identify with the state. This reinforces the impression that,crucially,a politics of aspiration has been boosted simply by demonstrating that the state need not be dysfunctional. As in 2005,he was asked his priorities; and again,he said “governance” — adding,quickly — “and governance covers everything.” Tellingly,when he spoke about what mattered to him personally most of all,it was to compare this election — when he went to the electorate to run on his record,on deliverables — to those in the past when it was more a battle,when you could wind up at hospitals or the graveyard,when “electoral management” of caste coalitions was central. He said he was glad it was over. Many refused to read “the writing on the wall”,he said — a dig at rival Lalu,certainly — but he wanted a referendum on his work,and he’d got it. The delivery of law and order,the disappearance of those who could otherwise have disrupted elections,he implied,is a large part of how Bihar had changed. There was,in his quiet affirmation that there was a lot to be done before 2015,a deadline he claimed he’d always had,a recognition that this mandate lays on him an even heavier responsibility. But there’s no doubt — again,something he flagged — that while Bihar has shown its willingness to change,the effects of this landslide will ripple out far beyond the state’s borders.