This is the travesty of the fate. Though the experts and pollsters have been attributing the anti-incumbency factor and the rebellion of the LJP Chief Chirag Paswan for escalation of the crisis, the fact is Nitish Kumar and his arrogance are to be solely blamed for creation of this situation. Nitish has extremely skewed nature of information channel. He has been dependent on his sycophants for the feedback. Obviously they present a rosy picture.

Amid slogans of “Modi, Modi” from the crowd, Nitish is heard telling the people “Modiji has taken time out” to campaign, and “Listen to his appeal. If you give the NDA one more chance, then you can be sure he will transform the state. Bihar will march ahead.” The CM referred to Patna Metro, Smart Cities plan, the Ujjwala scheme and roads in Bihar while applauding the PM’s “generosity”. He eulogises Modi for his efforts in controlling the Covid-19 as “exceptional”.

Most of the people surrounding him have their vested interest and known racketeers. A man is known from the company he keeps. This allegorically applies to him.

This election exposed two aspects of his personal credentials. One, the myth of his being sophisticated and civilised and second, his having order of administrative acumen. People praise him for improving the basic infrastructure of Bihar and usually the construction and repair of the roads are cited as the primary evidences. No doubt the roads were not motorable during the rule of Lalu Yadav as he did not care to spend fund on their maintenance. Nitish spent huge money to improve the roads and it witnessed many of the stakeholders becoming millionaires. PWD lived upto its reputation of Public Waster Department. Once the transportation improved a number of multi storied complexes came up. But the other side of the story is he did not bother to improve the basic health and education infrastructure.

Even the premier health institute, the Patna Medical College and Hospital denigrated to such an extent that the people have been left with no alternative but to rush to Delhi even for small treatment. All the hospitals in the states have been turned into hell. The least said the better about the education. It is the biggest money making source. Nitish launched the scheme to encourage the girls to come to schools. They were to be paid dress and cycle. The scheme was hijacked by the scamsters close to him and his favourite officers.

Any one trying to counsel and show him the right picture was treated by him as his personal enemy. It is not that the people of Bihar were unaware of these developments. He would be ousted from the state politics in 2015 itself. He survived by riding the bandwagon of Lalu Yadav.

In this election when there is no Lalu to protect him the real image of Nitish has come out in public. The pandemic also exposed this personal trait of Nitish. The poor people of Bihar will never forget the ill treatment meted out to them by him. For the first time in 15 years in Bihar, Nitish is at the receiving end. He is nursing the image of a person not interested in progress and growth and simply behaving like a political zealot. The state in the true sense is managed by the court jesters.

It is a misnomer that he empowered the extremely backward castes, Mahadalits and women, while transforming the Bihar landscape with interventions in law and order, building roads and bridges, providing electricity and cycles for schoolgirls. His achievement was nothing more than scribbling a white dot on a black board. People came to perceive it as development and progress.

One feels pity for Nitish who kept Modi out of the Bihar campaign and even cancelled a dinner for the BJP ahead of the 2010 election because hoardings in Patna featured the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as its PM candidate. It is irony that Nitish is dependent on the same Modi for his survival. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Nitish is a friendless guy.

From the beginning of his political career he has mastered the art of playing gimmick. He has been resorting to populism. His ‘SaatNishchay’ or seven-resolves programme are part of the gimmick. It is said that the BJP has been working on the plan to finish him. It is entirely a bogus argument.

BJP leaders like Sushil Modi has presented a larger than life picture of Nitish before the national leadership. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who were so obsessed with their own political permutation and combinations that they had little left to evaluate the personal achievements of Nitish. For them throwing Mamata Banerjee and other Congress chief ministers out of power and implicating the human rights activists into terror cases have been such an important agenda that they find little time to analyse the ground situation in Bihar.

This no doubt poorly reflects on the political maneuverings of these two leaders. It was during the campaigning Modi came to realise of the mood of the people. If they had any inkling of the situation, that Nitish is going to prove a liability for them, they would certainly not have placed their bet on him. The migrant’s return in the pandemic also appears to have stoked a deeper questioning in Bihar, of which Nitish bears the brunt.

People have started questioning him about the nature and parameter of his claim that Bihar has attained development. People openly assert; “What is this vikas (development) if we need to go out of our state, to Delhi and Haryana and Maharashtra, to make a living? If we had jobs here, why would we need to go out? What use is this double-engine sarkar (JD-U in state, BJP at Centre), if we must leave our home?” They remind of his promise that he would develop Bihar to such a level that the people would not have to go migrate for jobs. Nevertheless the pandemic has made bare that at least 3 crore people of Bihar are migrant labourers. (IPA Service)