'Silent revolution' in Bihar, says Ravishankar-Oct 30, 2010,

'Silent revolution' in Bihar, says Ravishankar

Law Kumar Mishra, TNN, Oct 30, 2010, 05.46am IST


PATNA: BJP national general secretary Ravishankar Prasad on Friday claimed a "silent revolution" in Bihar was reflected in the heavy polling in the first three phases of polling.

"Bihar will redefine democracy in the country as people would discard caste and communal politics and vote for development," he said.

Prasad, who has addressed over 100 public meetings in the last three weeks, said that now even RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had strongly disfavoured development agenda for 15 years and promoted castesim, is talking of development. It is the positive face of changing Bihar politics, he said. "Bihar was notoriously recognized as a casteist state, but now it will be known as development-oriented state as the focus has shifted from caste to development," Ravishankar said.

According to him, even children are publicly acknowledging the development works of chief minister Nitish Kumar. At a public meeting at Pirpainty in Bhagalpur, school children who had come in their uniforms said that the uniforms were given to them by Nitish.

"Since 1990, Lalu Prasad promoted casteism in four Lok Sabha elections and four state assembly elections held between 1991 and 2005. Now he has declared he would give up caste politics and concentrate on development provided he was given a chance to rule Bihar again," Ravishankar said.

The BJP leader complimented the Election Commission of India for peaceful conduct of first three phases of the polls despite Maoists' threat. "Bihar has shed violence-based elections and showing democracy was gaining maturity here. The entire language of Bihar politics has changed in this election," he said.

He advised AICC president Sonia Gandhi to do some homework before speaking in Bihar. "At a public meeting at Begusarai on Thursday, she said that Bihar remained backward in the last 20 years. She must recollect that the Congress supported Lalu Prasad for 15 years and even was a part of its government for five years," he added.