Bihar fate afteh 2009 loksabha elections

Bihar is underdeveloped, there can be no dispute over that, like no other state and region of India. And there so special and specific about Bihar’s underdevelopment for many reasons ?
On the eve of independence, Bihar produced 8 per cent of India’s food grains; it was 4th among the states in terms of industrial output and the largest producer of coal and steel.
Now, after 60 years of India’s independence, Bihar is the state with the lowest per capita income, barely Rs.10 or so on daily basis, which is less than one-third of Punjab’s, another predominantly agrarian economy. Bihar is the only Indian state where the per capita income has over the years actually declined.
This perpetual backwardness, this prolongation of Bihar’s underdevelopment, or better still non-development, deserves a comprehensive and in-depth study.
Bihar is caught in a trap, a poverty trap, in a vicious circle, and it is not going to be an easy job to break out from that. And this trap has been caused due to Central Government’s partiality and biased attitude and also because of Bihari people’s gullible nature( actually there straight-forwardness , direct , and honesty had been their cause of decline amongst the shrewdness of other western indian states.).
Often, hopes have been generated, say in the ’50s, when the e expanded at quite a satisfactory rate, as also in the latter part of the ’70s to mid-’80s, when total production of foodgrains had risen, and also the income from agriculture’s share had gone up by about 27 per cent.
In the ’90s too, statistics do show a high growth rate in foodgrains production as well as a real increase in area under HYV cultivation. Per hectare fertiliser consumption too has increased from 54.14 kg in 1989-90 to 64.51 kg in 1994-95. Household savings have risen considerably as witnessed in the astounding growth of non-banking financial institutions; take, for instance, JVG whose operational base is in Bihar. In the ’90s, hopes had particularly risen with the ascendancy of a social-justice regime, which in caste-class terms enjoyed the powerful backing of intermediate castes comprising mainly middle peasantry.

True, there are demographic and technological factors too that are responsible for Bihar’s underdevelopment. North Bihar has the highest concentration of mineral resources. With this, Chhota Nagpur’s had a strategic advantage to be developed as an industrial zone
One of the major dimensions of this perpetual backwardness is external, Several economists and social scientists have termed Bihar as an internal colony of India. Bihar has been the supplier of cheap labour and raw materials to agriculturally and industrially advanced states. Uniform pricing policy of coal and steel by the Central government had taken away the locational advantages from the Chhota Nagpur industrial zone.
Then again, plan allocations were heavily tilted against populous states like Bihar and Eastern UP. and per capita plan allocation in the 7th Plan was Rs.622 for Bihar, less than the national average of Rs.920. Per capita investment from all sources — public and private — in Bihar has been lower than other states for over 30 years including the ’80s. Substantial part of the savings go out of the state. Investment of long-term institutional funds through IDBI and other such institutions, and UTI, LIC and GIC etc. is lowest in Bihar. Even in the phase of globalisation and liberalisation, the investment scenario has been rather bleak here: Bihar got the lowest, just 0.14% of foreign capital finvestment from August 91 to May 96, because no SEZs were developed here. In central plan outlays emphasis now has shifted to poverty alleviation and welfare schemes, where the element of capital formation is quite low.
A federal government at the Centre, hardly inspires any confidence in terms of according any any preferential treatment to Bihar. The government is, on the contrary, more susceptible to the pulls and pressures of the powerful lobbies of advanced states.
To add insult to injury, in Bihar even half of the amount allotted to and in plans sanctioned is hardly spent due to callous administration.
Perpetual backwardness or the internal colonial status is, therefore, unlikely to be broken just by more allocation of central outlays or by waiting for the entry of foreign capital. Invoking the regional plank may be good politics for marginalized politicians, but it is bad economics indeed.
The impetus to break the vicious circle must come from within, generating vast internal resources. And here we enter into the other major dimension of the underdevelopment, the internal dynamics of Bihar economy.
Firstly, the arena of land reforms. Radical land redistribution is urgently needed to endow the land to enterprising small farmers. Small landholdings in the possession of small and marginal peasants should be given institutional backing to make them economically viable.
To enforce radical land reforms the political class must be prepared to go the whole hog, up to the nationalisation of all land and its redistribution to enterprising small farmers on lease basis. It is equally necessary to guarantee minimum wages to agrarian labourers both in relation to big as well as small farmers.
Secondly, the large amount of rural and semi-urban savings must be tapped by the state government agencies and redirected to farm-investments as well as building up infrastructure and improving social services.
Thirdly, pressure should be mounted on commercial banks in Bihar to improve their credit-deposit ratio and also for increased investment by term-lending institutions, the IDBI groups, LIC, GIC and UTI etc.
Fourth, the Centre should be pressurised for according preferential treatment to Bihar owing to its historical legacy of backwardness.
Only in the context of the internal vibrancy can the measures to attract capital, including foreign capital, for industrial development be meaningful.
India’s ruling establishment doesn’t bother much about the predicament of the common man in Bihar. With an expanding consumerism they can still sell the largest number of Maruti cars in Bihar. Patna witnesses the highest sale of premium brands of garments like Louis Philippe and Monte Carlo. Large savings from Bihar are channelised to build the fastest growing JVG empire. The best of Bihari brains can always be drained by JNU and Delhi University.
It is for the common people of Bihar and the intelligentsia, who are perturbed by the fact that nearly half of Bihar’s population goes to bed without food, to take the initiative to break the vicious circle. But you cannot expect it to be done by a political class which is deeply enmeshed in corruption, nor can it be achieved through a bureaucracy that is deep in league with the feudal forces.
An incorruptible political leadership with a grand vision for Bihar’s development that stands above the factional caste strifes of elites, coupled with the powerful mass initiatives at the grassroots, can alone break the shackles of poverty in Bihar.
Now one has a ray of hope after the Bihar electoral has united beyond caste and communal lines, making its choice by voting for a leader (read Nitish Kumar) who will unselfishly and considerately work for the economic and social development of Bihar. Also one good thing is that all Bihar leadership, whether Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, and others have united for a common cause that is development of Bihar, even tough they are politically unwilling to shake hands. And with such a conscience we hope they will do something which will be better for the people of Bihar.
Sankat jab vikral ho jata hai, Mahabharat tab anivarya ho uthta hai! (When the crisis becomes colossal then a Mahabharat becomes inevitable!).
Lakin yeh Mahabharat , hum sabhi Bihariyon ko ladna hain , bihar ke pichdepan se , aur center govt se humara poora hissa aur hisaab mangna hai. Taki humphir se ek vishaal aur vikasit Bihar khada kar sakein.

Bhojpuri -lutela lutela

Look at this very old bhojpuri hip hop song by someone in guyana called SonnyMan

india needed a new govt and PM

I feel somehow that change is good for progress and development of a person , company ,a business and a country , a new leader at the center would have brought new ideas and hopes for the people and the country of India.
UPA coming back to power in 2009 for the second term, will be quite mundane ,sameparty and same PM ruling us again ,the country should have given cahnce to a someone else this time i guess.
Lets hope whoever comes to power this time does something good development work in the country especially for economically backward regions like Eastern UP and Bihar ( i hope i am not too much from our govt being an indian citizen)