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Poll bugle has been sounded in Bihar with poll dates announcement. The state and the rest of India will be in the grip of Bihar buzz till the next government takes charge in Patna.
The ballot battle in Bihar is always exceptional. The state is the heart of Hindi heartland. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its colossal march in North India has ousted all regional satraps, Bihar remains out of its reach. First it was Lalu Yadav who stood as a bulwark against the saffron storm of the 1990’s. Then his successor Nitish Kumar, a Lohiate, has been astride for 20 years. He has interestingly done so with keeping BJP as an ally in power.
Bihar is rated among the most backward states of India, it nevertheless shines the brightest when it comes to democratic awakening. Biharis, it is famously said, chew on politics as if it is another form of khaini – spit tobacco, the quintessential indulgence of locals. Communal issues don’t resonate much with them; it’s caste that they mostly cast in polls.
Once recommendations of the Mandal Commission were rolled out in 1989, the marginalised in Bihar took reins of the state. Their upsurge has been riddled with pitfalls though. They have soared on the ladder of empowerment, yet they largely remain disabled and disadvantageous. The distribution of democratic benefits has been victim to systematic abuse of the system.
With subalterns at the helm and the privatisation of the Indian economy unleashing its riches through 1990’s making Indians richer and global, Bihar saw the marginal empowerment of the marginalized. Chosen among them came to power only to descend into decadence, infamy and stagnation. Bihar, all these years as is evident from writings of late journalist-author Sankarshan Thakur and ace penman William Dalrymple, struggled very hard to defy its image of being “the sewage of India”.
Biharis however never lost faith in democracy and their penchant for understanding or practicing politics despite daily jostling to defeat poverty remained as robust as ever. Among them are also Muslims of Bihar, the majority of whom are the Mandalised Muslims – those at the lower pedestal of power and social pyramid.
Muslims of Bihar, like rest of their brethren across India, are entering into an election in the shadow of several issues that revolve around their religious identity. In fact, in many of recent elections as in 2015 and 2020 Bihar assembly polls and 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Muslims faced the same predicament. There was a provocation galore. Incendiary speeches were made to make them feel the pinch and polarize the electorate along religious divisions.
The caste and creed matrix was not contaminated only by the Hindu right wing forces – the BJP and its various affiliated and non-affiliated organizations – even Muslim-specific forces like the All India Muslim Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and some stray Muslim leaders glowed embers of sectarianism.
The similar setting beckons Bihar and Biharis today as the state is set for a month of electioneering that will see all hues of attempts to mobilize masses for a cause that might force them to vote in favour of certain political forces. It’s a familiar test by fire for people who have matured a notch more than the previous election.
The BJP, a partner of ruling alliance with chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), is attempting to cash success of the Operation Sindoor and community-specific measures such as establishment of a grand Ram Janaki temple in Sitamarhi on the lines of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. But both these issues don’t seem to go beyond rhetoric in campaign speeches. It makes it clear that the common folks in Bihar don’t fall for emotive and divisive issues.
In order to win over the electorate, the ruling dispensation has to roll out a scheme blitzkrieg that includes financial doles to women and youth, besides a promise of 1 core jobs for the locals. Women and youth are emerging as the most assertive and sought after constituencies. All parties are keeping them in focus in their manifestos. With a master pollster like Prashant Kishor plunging into politics from this election, basic issues of Biharis have come to the centrestage. Kishor has been brilliantly articulating developmental ailments and remedies for Bihar and how graft of mainstream leaders has harmed the state and kept it backward. It has made all parties wary of tainted leaders and come up with a “blueprint of revamped Bihar”.
Now, Patna Metro has gone on track. New airports from even tier 2 cities like Purnea are going to start commercial flights. Bihar has got an international cricket stadium and will start hosting Indian Premier League (IPL) matches from the next session. It has already hosted the Hockey Asia Cup. These are signatures of “new Bihar” and a template for its future course.
As Biharis are returning from across India to their homes for the annual festive month, they will have multiple festivals to celebrate – that of ballots being as pivotal this time as Chhath.
This scene of pre-poll Bihar is charged up but not sullied with air of fear. But once the electioneering creeps towards crescendo, it will put the state’s perseverance to test. Any foolhardy lapse by any political worker or any irresponsible remark by any political leader will poison the atmosphere. This will be the litmus test of Biharis who have proved to the entire North India that they are people with difference – they have defied communalism while it rummaged through elsewhere all these years.
Muslims of Bihar will have more burdens on their shoulders. They already have leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi among them. Some clerics will be fielded by some parties during the course of the election. Owaisi no doubt speaks in the idiom of Constitution and advocates rights of common citizenry, but his excessive championing of “sole Muslim cause” has the potential of turning the non-Muslim votes awry, if not outright hostile. Fortunately, Owaisi will expectedly keep himself to comfortable Muslim-infested confines of Seemanchal region. He knows the limits of his appeal and possibility of blowback from Biharis to any overzealous communal overtures.
Similarly, compulsively communal leaders like Gririraj Singh of BJP will try to market their vitriol for creating communal waves. Singh, active in Bihar politics for decades, has fortunately failed to incite hatred in common Biharis that he carries in himself.
This spirit of “containment of communalism” and “renewed and developed Bihar” is what India expects from November polls. It will be the triumph of democracy. It will be a model case for the rest of the country.
By: Dr Shujaat Ali Quadri