Abstract
The Bihar election results has thrown a different hat in the Indian political arena viz. a combination of development politics, as practiced by JDU`s Nitish Kumar and a political with a religious tone of politics as practiced by RDU`s Laloo Yadav. Is this combination good for the development of India? This blogpost explores how development politics can overcome or keep at bay the counterbalancing pseudo politics that India has seen for long.
Main Text
In the last few days, India has been full of news of the state of Bihar election results which has been likened to a mini general election. The JDU alliance swept the elections by trouncing the BJP with a 2/3rd majority thereby handing the clean, efficient and the man who has brought development to Bihar, Nitish Kumar, a third term to rule Bihar.
Switch back to May 2014 general elections, the BJP had trounced all in Bihar and across India to emerge as undisputed champs in India. I had written on my blog at that time (India at the edge of dramatic change in political governance (http://ramnarayanan1112.blogspot.com/2014/05/india-at-edge-of-dramatic-change-in.html) that the political trend in India has shifted to “Development” based politics on which Narendra Modi swept to power. People wanted real development and less corruption in India and not slogans which saw them vote to power leaders with a clean and pro-development image like Fadnavis in Maharashtra and anti – corruption crusaders like Kejriwal. The present Bihar elections where the grand alliance (Mahaghatbandhan) of JDU, RJD and the Congress won handsomely throws some interesting trends. It was a combination of progressive development, mainly of JDU, and caste based appeal especially of the RJD led by the evergreen Laloo Yadav.
Many political pundits say development agenda has its own limits and socialist trends like caste, reservations, etc. play a significant role in the Indian political ecosystem and will be a permanent feature in India as is evident from the Bihar election results. Will this socialist trend play an increasingly counter balance effect to development economics, which has been made a centre point by Narendra Modi? Does the rebirth of Laloo Yadav with his caste based politics with no heed to development or law and order point to many political pockets in India which doesn’t seem to care about development?
I would argue that the Bihar elections is to a large extent a vote for a development agenda thanks to Nitish Kumar. Nitish in his last two terms as Chief Minister has had a clean image and has brought development to Bihar. He has built infrastructure, brought electricity to the rural areas, reduced corruption and most importantly has improved drastically the law and order situation in Bihar which is a far cry from the past governments. He created jobs for Biharis in Bihar so that other states which used to get labourers from Bihar started facing a shortage of labourers as they were content working in Bihar. Over the last 10 years, the state of Bihar changed from a BIMARU state to one that started clocking a very high GDP growth amongst all the states in India. Hence Biharis have voted for development now to a large extent.
What explains the vote banks on socialist and religious basis, like Laloo `s and importantly how do progressive minded politicians tackle these vote banks which can play a spoil sport to the country`s and state`s development? Bihar especially has remained a backward area, before Nitish, due to the pseudo politics of the Congress and Laloo. Divisive vote banks based on caste and religious lines are nurtured by politicians to cater to their narrow needs by playing on their fears. The Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Yadav and Laloo `s RJD had consistently nurtured the Muslim votes by playing on their security fears after the Babri Masjid demolition while Mayawati has cobbled together a vote bank of Dalits in UP. However one of the striking features of these vote bank politics is that these vote banks never fully get the benefits like development, education,etc that is promised to them by their so called “benefactors”. By playing on their sense of insecurity, vote banks are developed which the politicians use for their political needs only and disinclined to improve the people`s basic life and needs. Anti-minorities jingoism from mainstream politicians have also led to the insecurity amongst the minorities as has been in the recent beef ban case, destruction of churches, etc. Thus these minorities groups vote to protect themselves and their interests thus creating a divisive vote bank which doesn’t necessarily encourage development politics. The Congress developed a vote bank on Muslims, backward castes, etc. for so many years but has their lot improved over the last so many years? Have the Muslims benefited from pseudos’ like Mulayam, Laloo, etc.? Only a few like the Yadavs in Bihar have benefited from these vote bank politics.
This leads to the questions as to how development oriented politics overcomes pseudo socialist and religious based divisive politics. The major question for Bihar`s immediate future is how will the marriage of Nitish, and Laloo work? Laloo‘s party RJD has the highest number of seats and it is obvious that RJD will be the backseat driver and in all probability impede the progressive thoughts of Nitish.
The progressive politics oriented politicians like Nitish and Modi can follow a few guidelines:
1) Economic development is a sure shot winner in elections. People see the good work done and will surely reward the good work.
2) Ensure that the people can feel the benefits of the development. E.g. good roads, uninterrupted power and water supply especially in rural areas, reduction in ground level corruption, etc. are feel good factors for voters. Chandrababu Naidu lost the AP elections in 2004 as most people in rural AP didn’t feel the effects of development.
3) Reduction in ground level corruption is a sure shot winner as has been the case with AAP in Delhi.
4) Importantly, control anti-minorities talk and feelers from mainstream leaders. One of the major factors for the BJP`s loss in Bihar has been the anti-Muslim activities like the beef ban followed by untoward events in UP and anti-reservations talk on the eve of the elections. Hot-headed religious fanatics have made statements which have pushed the minorities into a fear mode and thus voting for other parties who promise them the so called “protection”.
Atal Behari Vajpayee and Narsimha Rao, two of the most effective Prime Ministers that India has had, proved how run development oriented agenda by balancing all other factors and people. Narsimha Rao deftly managed all factions in the Congress while Vajpayee managed to handle the RSS, VHP, etc. in an efficient manner. Nitish may have to take a leaf out of their books to keep Laloo at bay while pursuing his agenda. Modi too needs to do the same to work more effectively to deliver his agenda which he promised in the 2014 elections.
Development by balancing irritable socialist agenda has been the key to many great leaders` success. Ronald Reagan in USA, Margaret Thatcher in UK and Deng Xiapoing in China, apart from Rao and Vajpayee in India are great examples. Time will tell what will happen to development and progressive politics in India. After the 2014 elections, India is again at the cusp of an interesting turn of development Vs socialist politics after the Bihar elections. Let`s all hope for the best!
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