A new beginning for Bihar?
I cannot curb my animal joy running thru my veins in seeing the “irrepressible” Lalu Yadav getting forced out of power in Bihar. It may still gush forth. Honest to God, I have been waiting for this since 90s. My heart is full of hate for that feller and his minions. I have anger up my ass for his supporters in the elite media who hold brief for his brand of “secularism”.
But to be reasonable and also to satisfy my insatiable urge to provide contrary opinion, I am going to say that Bihar won’t change and it will not change a wee bit, the political churning happening in the Gangetic plains. Once the Pandora’s box of identity politics has been opened, the genie is out. Caste and identity will still prevail and countervail over all other development issues in the long run. I had argued a position in acceptance of Lalu brand politics because he “represents” various groups who have no trust in normal style politics. And we would be better off in having those groups have a stake in the democratic system, though dragging it down to the muck as Lalu did, than take arms and agitate in pointless hope of utopian “revolution” as it is happening across in Nepal. If at all we want to change that, polity has to find better ways to represent those groups. Blaming Lalu is no good. What has happened now (or would have) is an expedient stitching of a coalition of various groups who are equally disenchanted with Lalu. Lalu is down alright, but Laluism is here to stay.
Still this overthrow of Lalu throws many hopes. The important lesson is that the political process cannot be thwarted endlessly to keep alive a thuggish regime. It gives hope to all the righteous middle class citizens in urban India. Majority of Bihar may also feel the same way, but deep down I have suspicions that the caste groups are still going to play their one-ups under Nitish. We are talking about the collective anger of Thakurs, Bhoomihars & Kurmis pent up for 15 years. May God grant the wisdom to Nitish to soothe the ruffled feathers and gaping wounds of Bihar.
posted by Srinivasan @ 8:39 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
My critique against Lalu bears no repetition. It is generally along the lines of mass opinion in our country; that he uses caste divisions to promote his own interests. Like The Hindu I do not subscribe to the theory that he is "the enduring symbol of social justice and secularism" in India. I vehemently oppose that baloney. I also refuse to forget that there is a huge chasm between sections of our society that are not well represented in our polity and in the absence of genuine representation, it swings to folks like Lalu who talk their tongue, but intent on their own business. My call was, in crowing about the defeat of Lalu, let us not forget that those groups are still vulnerable to another demogogue's antics.
Post a Comment
<< Home