I don't know how I missed this wonderful article. Sun set and sun rise states also have problem. They have become "SON Rise" states. Another form of vandalism, to corner the common wealth of the nation. Now we should try to see both sides of the coin. Kudos Shibal.
The article presents a nice perspective of bihar's history and present and the reasons thereby, but still the question remains..... How can the central government be assured that their investments in Bihar would reap Considerable returns expecially looking to the present law & order situation and the recent incident of "Satyendra dubey "murder case working on the national highways project.
Good article. All i would say that Biahr is paying the Price of being politically sensitive state. You can easily find out the fact that Bihar and UP are most politically sensitive state and also one of the most poorest state of the country. These states were paying the price of being political sensitive. The more they get involved in policitics the more they will indulge themselve in Cast politics. If you can see the so called advanced state in india are not so much politically sensitive as they are.
Bihar is also not getting enough attention from Center ,take a example Bihar was and is facing Energy Problem but no concrete steps were taken. Everybody knows that in india Uranium is found in Jaduguda mines (Near Jamshedpur now part of Jharkhand) but there is not a single nuclear Power plant in Bihar :( Better instead of spending time in discussing caste politics bihari people should discuss the root problem and try to rectify it.
This is really good info on Bihar but I disagree to one point mentioned in it that Central does not take Bihar under consideration and is more closer to Maharashtra and South.
In every government, many Bihari Ministers grab core ministries, however it's pity that they do nothing for anybody. Eventhough Centre gives out good packages to the state when pressurized by local ministers.
On the contrary, few Maharashtrian leaders represent core places in Ministry and get nothing for the state. However, these minister's have plans and development zeal for the state.
I'd reckon, Maharashtra too needs a good brand who can demand special packages for the state, for it's development.
I am deeply surprised that lack of education as a factor was never discussed. Bihar is many a times linked with WB in the article. Reasons known to none!
I would like to put one thing. There are many other states like Tamil nadu where people are too orthodox. but what differentiates them is education. Moreover, whatever you do is not going to help in anyways. Bring prosperity by developing and then socio economic barrier will replace the present caste based barrier automatically. Just relax and let not people who are unfit from getting into the assembly house.
Even though he is giving some historical perspective to the situation of Bihar today , he concentrated more on small rationale instead of core point in discussion.
His analysis too is not convincing , he seems to be boggeddown by his personal biased view .
He has not concentrated the political process and caste rivalary, illetracy and unlucy of having bad leaders and public tolarence of the same.
Though , i am not completly convinced with some of the arguments he has given, but some of things which he has mentioned were absolutely correct in context of Bihar.
Note: In recent days i have seen so many documents on rediff.com where Bihar's poor condition is discussed. But I don't Know why these kinds of document doesn't appear on any newspaper, which is having more reader in Bihar so that it can have more impact.
Dr. Gutpta and many others are overtly bogged down with casteism in Bihar and attributing all ills to this phenomenon. In fact, talking about casteism and Bihar is a fashion. Dr. Gutpta has not talked about anything on economic reforms which has swept many parts of the country. While state governments are tripping over one another to woo investors from both home and abroad and making the most of India's new reform-based policies to generate jobs, Bihar is yet to join the race. Economic-reform essentially means less govt. role in running our lives. A govt. dept. dominated by upper caste may not like to lay telephone cables in low caste dominated area but a business man (i.e. pvt. co.) would put tower of mobile network where ever he has potential customers. Govt has to provide a conducive env. where pvt. sectors flourish. Before MANMOHANIZATION of Indian economy, most of us used to think the vast population of the country as biggest hurdle in the march of prosperity. Post reform, the vast poulation are looked as work force and market. Casteism is everywhere in India but it is only economic prosperity (via economic reforms) which can sublime it. Other approaches have failed.
This article makes you ponder over Bihar's situation, and is really a well organized one. But I could not understand why Dr. Gupta named Amartya Sen out of the context. Everyone's contribution to this society can be at different levels. It depends on how people perceive the word ' contribution' itself. Anyways, people can also argue, how Bihar has had a negative impact on its neighboring states.. especially Bengal.There is no end to it, so its pointless to blame on others when the things are idiosyncratic.
