Politics
Main article: Politics of Bihar
- See also: Political parties in Bihar, Elections in Bihar
Bihar was an important part of India's struggle for independence. Gandhi became the mass leader only after the Champaran Satyagraha that he launched on the repeated request of a local leader, Raj Kumar Shukla, and Gandhi was supported by Rajendra Prasad, Sri Krishna Sinha,Anugrah Narayan Sinha and Brajkishore Prasad.
The first Bihar governments in 1937 and 1946 were led by two eminent leaders Sri Babu (Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha) and Anugrah Babu (Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha) who were men of unimpeachable integrity and great public spirit.[67] They ran an exemplary government in Bihar.[67] Bihar was rated as the best administered among the states in the country at that time.[68]
Even after independence, when India was falling into an autocratic rule during the regime of Indira Gandhi, the main thrust to the movement to hold elections came from Bihar under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. The airport of Patna is also named after him.
This resulted in two things:
- Bihar gained an anti-establishment image. The establishment-oriented press often projected the state as indiscipline and anarchy.
- As a result, the identity of Bihar, representing a glorious past, was lost. Its voice often used to get lost in the din of regional clamor of other states, specially the linguistic states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
Since the regional identity was slowly getting sidelined, its place was taken up by caste based politics, power initially being in the hands of the Bhumihar, Rajput, Kayastha and Brahmin. After independence, the power was shared by the two great Gandhians Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha, who later became the first Chief Minister of Bihar and Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha, who decidedly was next to him in the cabinet and served as the first deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of Bihar.In the late 60s, the death of Mr. Lalit Narayan Mishra, the Indian Railway minister (who was killed by a hand grenade attack for which Central leadership is blamed most of the time) pronounced the end of indigenous work oriented mass leaders. For two decades, the Congress ruled the state with the help of puppet chief ministries hand in glove with the central government (Indira Gandhi) ignoring the welfare of the people of the state. It was at this time that Chandrashekhar Singh became the Chief Minister. It was the time when a prominent leader like Satyendra Narayan Sinha took sides with the Janata Party and deserted congress from where his political roots originated, following the ideological differences with the congress. Idealism did assert itself in the politics from time to time, viz, 1977 when a wave defeated the entrenched Congress Party and then again in 1989 when Janata Dal came to power on an anti corruption wave. In between, the socialist movement tried to break the stranglehold of the status quoits under the leadership of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha and Karpoori Thakur. Unfortunately, this could not flourish, partly due to the impractical idealism of these leaders and partly due to the machinations of the central leaders of the Congress Party who felt threatened by a large politically aware state. Communist Party in Bihar was formed in 1939. The Communist movement in Bihar was led by veteran communist leaders like the venerable Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Indradeep Sinha, Sunil Mukherjee, Jagannath Sarkar, Rahul Sankrityayan, Karyanand Sharma and others.[67]
Communist Party in Bihar was a formidable force. They were in the forefront of all the progressive movements in Bihar. It was Communist Party of Bihar headed by Jagannath Sarkar fought against the "total revolution" of Jaya Prakash Narain.
Janata Dal came to power in the state in 1990 on the back of its victory at the national stage in 1989. Lalu Prasad Yadav became Chief Minister after winning the race of legislative party leadership by a slender margin against Ram Sundar Das, a former chief minister from the Janata Party and close to eminent Janata Party leaders like Chandrashekhar and S N Sinha. Later, Lalu Prasad Yadav gained popularity with the masses through a series of popular and populist measures. The principled socialists, Nitish Kumar included, gradually left him and Lalu Prasad Yadav by 1995, was both Chief Minister as well as the President of his party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was a charismatic leader who had the people's support. But he couldn't bring the derailed wagon of development of the state onto the track. When corruption charges got serious, he quit the post of CM but anointed his wife as the CM and ruled through proxy. In this period, the administration deteriorated quickly.
By 2004, 14 years after Lalu's victory, The Economist magazine said that "Bihar [had] become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronize, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties".[69] In 2005, the World Bank believed that issues faced by the state was "enormous" because of "persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactory infrastructure and weak governance".[70]
In 2005, as disaffection reached a crescendo among the masses including the middle classes, the RJD was voted out of power and Lalu Prasad Yadav lost an election to a coalition headed by his previous ally and now rival Nitish Kumar. Despite the separation of financially richer Jharkhand, Bihar has actually seen more positive growth in recent years under his leadership.
Currently, there are two main political formations: the NDA which comprises Janata Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal led coalition which also has the Indian National Congress. There are myriad other political formations. Ram Vilas Paswan ledLok Janshakti Party is a constituent of the UPA at the center. The Communist Party of India had a strong presence in Bihar at one time, but is weakened now. The CPM and Forward Bloc have a minor presence, along with the other extreme Left. In the 2010 state elections Bihar's current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led government got thunderous support from public and won 206 seats out of 243 seats. Analysts and even Nitish Kumar's political opponents credit Kumar's excellent pro-public governance centered around development, curb on crime and corruption and given importance of all sections of society.[71] In past 5 years Bihar made fast progress and have implemented many novel ideas, for which it is taken in high steam by other states of India. The recent performance in assembly election and mature voting by people of Bihar, which also saw for the first time in Indian electorates the highest number of female voting, is being called as something to follow all over India to bring political maturity in the nation and improve the quality of governance and politicians by rightfully exercising the democratic rights in true sense. Bihar is credited to set this example. Also after coming to power again in 2010, the current government immediately started its movement against corruption by confiscating properties of corrupt officials and opening schools in them.[72] Simultaneously they introduced Bihar Special Court Act to curb crime.[73] Amongst the eminent Bihari immigrants overseas are Dr.Gholam Mujtaba,a Pakistani-American politician and Ambassador Rashad Hussain,an Indian-American presently serving as United States Ambassador to the OIC (Organization of Islamic countries).
[edit]Economy
| Year | Gross State Domestic Product (millions of Indian Rupees)[74] |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 73,530 |
| 1985 | 142,950 |
| 1990 | 264,290 |
| 1995 | 244,830 |
| 2000 | 469,430 |
| 2005 | 710,060 [75] |
Main article: Economy of Bihar
The economy of Bihar is largely service oriented, but it also has a significant agricultural base. The state also has a small industrial sector. As of 2008, agriculture accounted for 35%, industry 9% and service 55% of the economy of the state.[77] Among all the sector, manufacturing sector performed very poorly in the state between 2002–2006, with an average growth rate of 0.38% compared to India's 7.8%. Bihar was the lowest GDP per capita in India, although there are pockets of higher than the average per capita income.[78] Between 1999 and 2008, GDP grew by 5.1% a year, which was below the Indian average of 7.3%.[79] More recently, Bihar's state GDP recorded a growth of 18% between 2006–2007,[80] and stood at 94251 Crores Rupees[81] ($21 billion nominal GDP). Between a 5 year period of 2004-2009, Bihar's GDP grew at a stunning rate of 11.03%.[82] This makes Bihar the fastest growing major state. In actual terms, Bihar state GDP was ranked 2nd out of 28 states, ranking it next only to Gujarat.[82]
Corruption is an import hurdle for the government to overcome according to Transparency International India, which highlighted Bihar as the Union's most corrupt state in a 2005 report. Despite the recent economic gains, significant challenges remain and the government has also stated that combating corruption is now the biggest challenge the administration is faced. Bihar has seen a sea change under the Nitish Kumar regime.[83][84]
Bihar has significant levels of production of mango, guava, litchi, pineapple, brinjal, cauliflower, bhindi, and cabbage in India.[85] Despite the states leading role in food production, investment in irrigation and other agriculture facilities has been inadequate in the past. Historically, the sugar and vegetable oil industries were flourishing sectors of Bihar. Until the mid fifties, 25% of India's sugar output was from Bihar. Dalmianagar was a large agro-industrial town. There have been attempts to industrialize the state between 1950 and 1980: an oil refinery in Barauni, a motor scooter plant at Fatuha, and a power plant at Muzaffarpur. However, these were forced to shut down due to central government policy which neutralized the strategic advantages of Bihar. Hajipur, near Patna, remains a major industrial town in the state, linked to the capital city through the Ganges bridge and good road infrastructure.
The state's debt was estimated at 77% of GDP by 2007.[86] The Finance Ministry has given top priority to create investment opportunities for big industrial houses like Reliance Industries. Further developments have taken place in the growth of small industries, improvements in IT infrastructure, the new software park in Patna, and the completion of the expressway from the Purvanchal border through Bihar to Jharkhand. In August 2008, a Patna registered company called the Security and Intelligence Services (SIS) India Limited[87] took over the Australian guard and mobile patrol services business of American conglomerate, United Technologies Corp (UTC). SIS is registered and taxed in Bihar.[88] The capital city, Patna, is one of the better off cities in India when measured by per capita income.[89]^
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