Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Bihar defies India's economic slump, and how






Manoj Chaurasia in Patna


While the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the centre is battling hard to somehow contain the economic slump now badly affecting the Indian economy, it is surprisingly a different story out there in the cow-belt of Bihar.


At least, this is what explains the amazingly high demands of vehicles among the “poor” residents in this eastern Indian state whose economy, as Bihar government records claims, has grown by an startling 11.36 percent in the past six years of Nitish Kumar regime, leaving far behind even the most developed states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab.


Official figures suggest that the sale of vehicles has registered a terrific 500 percent jump in the past five years in Bihar defying the current trend in the country when the sale of vehicles has been badly hit owing to the spiralling fuel price and high interest rate especially in the past seven months.


In the first two months of the current fiscal as well, around 75,000 vehicles have been sold in Bihar showing people’s love for luxury and triggering a debate among the economists about the increasing “purchase capacity” of common Biharis.


State authorities, though, have a different story to tell. According to them, silky roads and improved law and order have pushed up the vehicle sales in Bihar as in the changed situation driving has become a pleasure here. 


They say the vehicles’ sale is registering a growth of 50 to 55 percent every year as now there is no bump on state’s roads once known for being pot-holed, ditched looks virtually turning the whole of the state into a market of auto-parts.


Now with good roads cutting the travel hours just by half, driving is not only a pleasure here but it has also replaced the markets of auto-parts with markets of automobiles itself with many leading national as well as international automobile companies opening up their show rooms across the state, apparently encouraged by the good cash flow in the market.


The illuminating show rooms of prominent car-making companies, such as General Motors, Hyundai Motors and Ford India in addition to very own “Maruti Udyog” even in far-off places are just an indication of how state’s economy has grown over the years, says the government.


The available statistics too appear to be supporting the government’s claim. As per government records, a total of 80,363 vehicles were sold in 2005-06 ~ the year when the Rabri Devi government had quit the throne in Bihar but in the last financial year (2011-2012), its sale touched a whopping 440,000 (including 32,090 cars) figure~ recording a jump of more than 500 percent! 


As per the records, in the financial year 2005-06, the total number of vehicles sold in the state was a petty 80,363, which went up to 1,47,309 vehicles in 2006-07;  1,61,757 in 2007-08;  2,20,413 in 2008-09;  3,27,433 in 2009-10;  3,86,223 in 2010-11 and 4,39,671 in the last financial 2011-12 while in the first two months of the current financial year, as many as 74,928 vehicles have already been sold.


So, from where this money is coming when according to government’s own record, the total percentage of state’s population living below poverty line (BPL) is around 70 pefcent?  


“The rise in sale of vehicle is indicative of the fact that state’s economy is slowly getting strengthened”, Bihar’s transport minister Brishen Patel said. He added that the smooth roads and lack of fear factor among the villagers had further hastened the vehicle sales. According to an official report, altogether 13,322. 80 km of roads have been built by the Nitish Kumar government since it took over in November 2005.


However, the economists familiar with the overall state of affairs in Bihar reject the government’s “turnaround” theory resulting in push in car sales and, instead, describe the “huge flow of black money in markets” as the prime reason behind the alarming jump in car sales in the last few years. 


“The growth model of the Nitish Kumar government is such that money has got centrelised in very few hands (just 5 to 10 percent people), state’s plan size has increased from Rs 6,000 crores to now 28,000 crores while corruption has grown up by 500 percent in the last few years under the NDA regime. Much of the money being used for buying cars is, thus, obviously ‘ill-gotten’ wealth which ought to have been spent on launching development schemes”, explained an eminent economist and a senior professor of economics at the Patna University Professor Nawal Kishore Chaudhary. 


According to him, the present economic condition of the state is such that the ‘looted’ money is being utilized in only two things ~ they are either being invested in real estate which has alarmingly pushed up the land price by five-fold or for enjoying luxury by purchasing expensive cars. “The present economic scenario prevents the ‘corrupt’ to invest money in big business since there is no or limited scope for setting up big industries”, he opined.


Economists say that the growth in Bihar is not sustainable as it has been virtually led by the secondary and tertiary sectors with construction contributing 26.6 percent and hotel business contributing 20.1 percent of the state total growth while agriculture which is the mainstay of state economy and upon which more than 80 percent of state’s total 10 crore population is dependent has shown a negative growth under the present NDA regime. 


“If Bihar has really shown a turnaround and outperformed developed states in the country in matter of economic growth, why would have the chief minister constantly harping on seeking from the Centre the special category status for his state despite his request being rejected earlier by the UPA government?” ask the economic experts. 

No case in 100 years at this Indian village




Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

At a time when cases of crime and corruption filling the pages of newspapers may well be causing people to tear the hair from their heads, so to speak, this story from Nawada district, in southern Bihar, comes as a whiff of fresh air.  

Residents at Padia village, tucked away in Roh block in Nawada district, claim they don’t recall having filed any cases either with the police or in the court in the last 100 years as they have no history of quarrels involving bloodshed or major violence.  

This comes at a time when millions of cases are pending in the courts awaiting disposal, many of them from decades back.  

Villagers of Padia say petty cases of disputes indeed occur at intervals but whenever such situations arise, they convene a meeting of the local panchayat and sort out the dispute cordially with the help of elderly citizens, rather than involving police or the judiciary.  

The initiative, they say, has not only ensured peace in the village but also saved them both time and money. 

They add that the village panchayat never imposes monetary fines on any of the culprits given the poor financial background of the villagers. Instead, the "criminals" are asked to do sit-ups or tender apology before the entire village as punishment for their crime.  

The village comprises some 150 families, dominated by backward class people.

The local sarpanch, Mundrika Prasad Chaurasia says on an average two to three cases of petty disputes reach the village panchayat every month. “But we are always careful that the disputes do not turn violent… we try to sort out the case at the earliest in a cordial way”, said Chaurasia. 

Citing a recent example, he said a dispute over a piece of land occurred between two brothers, Suresh Prasad and Saryoo Prasad, but the panchayat resolved the land dispute and both parties to the dispute returned home happy.

A 90-year-old resident, Babulal Chaurasia, claimed he did not recall any dispute going beyond the village panchayat in his lifetime. 

“Why do we need the police or the court when we can solve any dispute at our own level? Our own panchayat is very strong and capable,” said another villager, Sahdeo Mahato. 

The local deputy superintendent of police, Shaharyar Akhtar, said he could not confirm the village's claim of not filing any case in the last century until he checked the police records, but he described as praiseworthy the villagers’ commitment to resolving disputes peacefully.  

Ironically, the villagers claim that the peace that prevails in the village, has virtually blocked development work at Padia, where basic facilities like metalled road and power are a far cry. Their logic is that no official bothers to visit the village unless there is some serious problems there.

The local block development officer Ravi Kumar Sinha, however, said welfare measures would be taken up for the village as a "reward" for maintaining pace.

Uneasy truce scuppers Bihar meeting



Manoj Chaurasia in Patna

Though the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party, coalition partners in Bihar's ruling National Democratic Alliance government, have agreed on a “ceasefire”, things are not normal yet. It became clear today when the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, deferred a monthly meeting with the leaders and workers of both the parties without citing any reason.


Since returning to power with a historic three-fourths majority after the October-November 2010 Assembly elections, Mr Kumar has met BJP and JD-U workers on the last Monday of each month to obtain feedback about the government's functioning, know their problems, offer suggestions about taking official programmes to the people and to plan responses to the Opposition’s aggressive strategies. Now, it is for the first time in two years that the meeting has not been held, despite Mr Kumar being in Patna. This is described by many as the fall-out of the strained relations between the two parties.


According to sources, problems cropped up after Mr Kumar's comments on a secular NDA Prime Minister, made to the media rather than at a political forum. Although the JD-U president, Sharad Yadav, issued a gag order to his partymen and the Bihar chief minister subsequently directed all his party spokespersons not to say anything against the BJP to the media without consulting him or senior party leaders, BJP leaders chose to be cold to Mr Kumar.


The state JD-U chief, Vashishtha Narayan Singh, told the media  the meeting had been put off as the venue was being renovated. The state BJP chief, CP Thakur, said the cancellation might have resulted from the chief minister's pressing engagements.


Word, though, is there were apprehensions angry BJP supporters might shout pro-Narendra Modi slogans if a meeting were held. That would have been a repeat performance of the Friday protest at Raj Bhavan against price rise.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Nitish's attack on Modi ploy to dump NDA?





Manoj Chaurasia / The Statesman

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s frontal attack on the hard-line Hindutva forces slowly taking centre-stage within the BJP has triggered political upheavals with both the ruling partners, the JD-U and BJP, in the NDA government engaged in bitter verbal duels. 

The moot question now is if Nitish's reaction was spontaneous or is it part of JD-U’s larger game-plan to dump NDA and switch over to the UPA as and when situation warranted? Nitish has set four conditions before the BJP in exchange for JD-U’s continuation in the NDA. The conditions, among others, are that NDA’s prime ministerial candidate should have “secular credentials” and “must have a feeling for backward states like Bihar”.

Although the JD-U denies, a series of developments over the past week point towards the fact that Nitish's  party is eagerly waiting in the wings to switch sides. The way the JD-U chose to lend its support for UPA’s presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee in sharp contrast to BJP which has lent its weight behind PA Sangma lends credence to the belief. 

That the JD-U had already made up its mind to back the candidature of Mukherjee had become clear early this week when Nitish, during an interaction with the media persons on Monday, had sought for a consensus on presidential nominee saying “We have good relations with Pranab Babu although we don’t have bad terms with Sangamaji eitherl”. 

Significantly, Nitish, as media reports said, did not entertain the phone call made to him by BJP-backed Sanagama on Monday while he has gone on record claiming both the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee had called him up seeking his support.

Though nobody in the JD-U would agree, political circles in Patna are agog with the story that Nitish has entered into some sort of a “deal” with the Congress in exchange for lending his party support.

The “timing” of Nitish's attack on the BJP gives enough hints about something cooking up between JD-U and the Congress. See the sequence of events: On June 14, the chief minister holds a meeting of senior party leaders at his official residence in Patna at which he announces the party decision to hold massive rallies simultaneously at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan and New Delhi’s Ramlila Ground. 

A day later on June 15, Congress President Sonia Gandhi declares the name of UPA presidential nominee. 

Shortly thereafter, both the Prime Minister and Union Finance Minister call up the Bihar chief minister, seeking his support for presidential polls.

What transpires between Nitish and two top ministers in the UPA government is not known but shortly thereafter, on June 16, Nitish shots off a letter to the Prime Minister, requesting him to constitute an “expert committee” to look into JD-U’s demand for granting Bihar special status category. 

A day later on June 18, the chief minister demanded a consensus within the NDA on Presidential nominee stating that he was not in favour of election for the post, giving wide hints that he will be going against BJP's decision.

It was not the first time that Nitish was found having “soft corner” for the Congress. Shortly before the results of 2009 LS elections were to be declared, the CM had again announced, from a public meeting held in Hotel Maurya, to lend his party support to any party which promises to give Bihar special status category, apparently hoping that the Congress will not be able to form government on its own and will require support of parties outside UPA for government formation. 

The Congress was very quick to welcome Nitish’s move. But his plan to switch sides did not materialise later as the UPA itself mustered enough seats to form government on its own. 

Now, Nitish apparently feels the time is ripe to be a 'fence-sitter' so that he is able to change side as per his convenience depending on which one political formulation, the NDA or the UPA, is close to forming government after 2014  general elections. After all, it is really very difficult to be in the Opposition, isn't it?