Farmers Movement Archive

‘Lack of work opportunities glaring in Bihar’

PATNA: CPI(ML) is contesting 19 assembly seats as a part of the grand alliance comprising RJD, Congress, CPI and CPM. Since the first phase of the election for 71 seats is over and the second phase for 94 seats is due on November 3, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya tells Abhay Singh about the people’s response so far. Excerpts: First phase of the polls is over. Your take?There has been tremendous response in favour of the grand alliance candidates of people in the old Shahabad and Magadh regions. Similar, reports are coming from other areas and districts. On the basis of what is being said, the grand alliance should win in most of the constituencies and by a good margin. Never before did the opposition parties, in combination or otherwise, get such a big spontaneous response as this time, which has been visible in their rallies. Yes, there has been tremendous response of the youths. The problem of unemployment in the country as well as in the state is very glaring. The unemployment rate in the country is 23.50%, but in Bihar it is 45%. The problem was exacerbated by the return of migrant workers due to the lockdown arising from the coronavirus pandemic. Nationally, during the pandemic, the problem facing the workers was mitigated by the work opportunities provided by schemes taken up under MNREGA, but comparatively, in Bihar, the mitigation of the problem was minimal. The farm laws enacted by the Narendra Modi government also impacted the people’s thinking. It is being said that the grand alliance has set the agenda with RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav promising 10 lakh government jobs. The ruling NDA combine has been forced to go in reactive mode?Earlier, the opposition parties always went to the elections with limited agenda. It is for the first time that the agenda set by the grand alliance and Tejashwi is comprehensive, which promises to build Bihar from its present state of affairs. The agenda is contained in its mutually or commonly agreed 25-point programme. It has appealed to youths and promises to address the concerns of most other sections, including sharecroppers and even the Anganwadi, Jeevika, ASHA workers and pensioners. Women had been a big supporter of Nitish Kumar. What about this election? Yes, it was visible right since November 2005 assembly election and continued to stick to the promises he made and fulfilled. But this time, it is also quite visible that a big chunk of women has deserted him. They queued up at the polling booths to vote for the grand alliance in the first phase of elections. The NDA leaders, be it from the Centre or the state, invoke the 15-year rule of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi and dub it as the ‘jungle raj’ to show the changes that the NDA government had brought about in 15 years of Nitish rule. I was in Bhore (Gopalganj) assembly constituency where people cutting across parties were angry at the invocation of the jungle raj made by the NDA leaders. Technically, any rule is dubbed as jungle raj to mean the lack of rule of law. Even UP CM Yogi Adityanath refers to jungle raj for Bihar. People in Gopalganj were asking what kind of raj has been prevailing in UP if it is not jungle raj? His rule has seen fake encounters, rapes and killing of Dalit women, their burning and what not. It is the real jungle raj, because the government there is not accountable. Some of the things are happening even in Bihar under CM Nitish and, therefore, his rule can also be called jungle raj. That is the reasoning at the ground level.

The Times of India

2020-11-02

Patna