Trapped in an area of darkness

It was in the eighties that the acronym BIMARU was coined to represent the four north Indian states of Bihar Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh The economic and political situation in these states was so poor that it was dragging down the rest of the country making them seem constantly lsquobimarrsquo or ill Then things seemed to change for the better UP MP and Bihar were sliced up and new states of Chattisgarh Jharkhand and Uttarakhand came into being It was hoped that the states would now be easier to govern and for some time it did seem that the bad old yesteryears were over Ill fated Deaths of school children due to contaminated midday meals Maoist violence nothing seems to be going right for the beleaguered Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Just two years ago Bihar had a GDP growth rate of 1326 per cent and Madhya Pradesh of 1181 per cent when the national GDP growth rate was 621 per cent Even Uttar Pradesh played catch up and posted a 686 per cent growth Roads were being built and industries were being set up Educational institutes were churning out professionals to cater to the job market But somewhere along the line things have again started unravelling Goonda Raj has come back with a vengeance in Uttar Pradesh Brazen attacks on women take place while the young foreign educated Chief Minister maintains complicit silence In Azamgarh a former MLA Sarvesh Singh and his guard were shot dead last week and violence and arson spread unchecked within minutes A police inspector has now been arrested in the case There is no fear of law anymore in Uttar Pradesh as gangs operate freely with the full knowledge that the overpoliticised police are either complicit or tacitly looking the other way In neighbouring Bihar the edifice of good governance is also crumbling As if overnight after the political divorce between the BJP and the JDU a huge shadow has crept over the state The bomb blasts at Bodh Gaya deaths of school children due to contaminated midday meals Maoist violence nothing seems to be going right for the beleaguered Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was credited for ending gang warfare and changing the way politics was done in Bihar The vikas purush transformed equations defocused caste and laid emphasis on governance But come 2013 the twoterm Chief Minister is now pressing the Central government for lsquospecial statusrsquo to Bihar lsquofor overcoming backwardnessrsquo His argument is that despite having 8 per cent of the countryrsquos population Biharrsquos contribution to the GDP is only 29 per cent And a Special Status is the magic wand that will pull Bihar out from the abyss of darkness On his visit to Bihar Finance Minister P Chidambaram said ldquoThe committee will work on the criteria and submit a report after which we will have new criteria to determine backwardness Once we have agreed on the criteria and implemented them States will qualify under them From whatever information I have Bihar will certainly qualifyrdquo Being backward is now a badge to be worn with pride You have to work hard to lsquoqualifyrsquo for it Other states like Orissa will have to wait in line for such largesse to come their way Nitish is the new Blue eyed boy for the Centre The wouldbe giant slayer who dared you see As the general elections loom closer there is nervousness that the erstwhile BIMARU states mdash with their negativity and divisive politics mdash will be the main focus of all political parties Uttar Pradesh where almost 60 million people live below the poverty line wields tremendous power as it sends the maximum number of legislators to Parliament These are the states where the permutations and combinations of electoral politics take place which ultimately leads to government formation in New Delhi All eyes are now on these states But how are people in these states going to vote in the 2014 elections They ought to vote in favour of governance and boot out parties that have kept millions of people in an Area of Darkness mdash all in the name of Secularism Mandal and Hindutva But will they Are they trapped in the tyranny of false choices In every election the voters elect parties and leaders who promise them a better tomorrow Hope it is said is not a strategy But in a country where two meals a day is a luxury for millions Hope is the narcotic needed to dull the harsh reality The search is on for vision clarity and selflessness in our leaders But no party or leader seems capable or convincing of lifting the millions out of the abyss of darkness Smita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on Twitter smitaprakash