BIHAR SHOWS THE WAY- 21/1/11

BIHAR SHOWS THE WAY

Posted: 21/1/11 09:41 PM PST

Politics and governance of a country are always enriched by ideas from other shores as much as its economy and culture. In fact, ideas and influences from outside are the only means to revive and nourish indigenous ways, especially when they become decadent. West Bengal needs winds of change blowing in from other places more than ever in its contemporary history. For some changes, it needs to look no further than Bihar. Given the tenacity of Bengal’s politicians to flout the rules and its officials’ inability to implement them, the coming assembly polls in the state could once again prove to be another season of extraordinary visual and sound pollution for Calcuttans. What Bihar did during the last state polls there holds some promise for Bengal, if only the Election Commission can repeat the success story. It is not that Bengal lacks laws to stop politicians from defacing Calcutta’s walls or to force them to abide by the rules about campaign expenditure or about the use of microphones. What ails Bengal is a collective incapacity to change its self-destructive ways.

However, changing the way of election campaigns is only a sideshow to the larger message of change that Bengal can take from Bihar. Nitish Kumar has shown that there is no contradiction between the demands of electoral democracy and those of development. His low-key rhetoric and pragmatic style of governance are a far cry from the raucous, populist din that passes for politics in Bengal. Mr Kumar’s Bihar is raising itself from the casteist violence and lawlessness that once made it India’s badlands. By contrast, Left-ruled Bengal has plunged into the pits of political terror and violence. Before Mr Kumar took over office, development was an impossible dream in Bihar. In today’s Bengal, competitive destructiveness is the stuff of politics.

Ultimately, what seems to have made the Bihar story possible is the people’s refusal to accept darkness as inescapable and their quiet determination to bring light back into their lives. Mr Kumar’s success lies in capturing this shift in the public mood and in trying to live up to it. It is common to hear the people of Bengal groan and moan over the state of their lives and blame it all on their unscrupulous politicians and inefficient government. But plunging deeper into despair and doing nothing to get out of it are typical signs of decadence. The forthcoming elections in the state may have inspired hopes for a change of government. But such is the depth of the pessimism that doubts have already been raised if a new dispensation at Writers’ Buildings will really lift the gloom currently enveloping the state’s horizon. Bihar shows that the people’s quest for a better life can ultimately defeat the forces of destruction. If Bengal is left with any will to learn and reform, an example is there next door. Can West Bengal regain the will to live and learn à la Bihar?