We often hear of many Indias within India. It is mainly used to differentiate between the rich India and the poor India. Sometimes, we also hear of the divide of the Vindhyas - the north and the south. That a chasm exists within North India itself is seldom visible to an outsider. But exist it does. Actually, it exists to a level that its ferocity would take anyone off guard.I
In this blog, the kid wishes to exhibit his sense of humour. And what does he do? He repudiates Bihar as nobody's business. It should come to nobody as a surprise if it is fouund that he has probably never set his foot in Bihar. He must have met a few labourers from Bihar, for Delhi cant move without the contribution of the hard working Bihari. He would probably have met a few Biharis who are toppers at DU / JNU / IIT or wherever this kid has studied from. But then in the society of these elites, Bihar has to perform a function, namely, to satisfy their sense of superiority by perpetually being worse than his society, and believe me, a place can only be worse than hell if it has to be worse than their society.So those toppers or for that matter any other Bihari who exhibits any agreeable trait does not register as a Bihari. Abominably, these chaps do not even hesistate to say on the face of a Bihari that he does not seem to be a Bihari if they wish to honour him. And they mean it as a compliment, not sarcasm!!!What does one say of this culture? What is the future going to hold for a Bihari kid in days to come if such arrogance is tolerated anymore?Indeed there is an all round lowering of standards, specially in Delhi of today. But Biharis have to survive, actually not just survive but flourish and thrive. So whatever be the depth to which the standard sinks, one will have to look after one's own interest in this big bad world.Has the time come for we Biharis to develop our own militant sub nationalism which gives these chaps back as hard as it gets?
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Emerrging from the shadow
It has been fashionable to blame Bihar for anything that goes wrong for the last two decades at least. Wherever the fault may be, the blame is always put on Bihar. When I first heard about a decade back that BHEL has been less than honest in its supplies to the Kanti thermal, near Muzaffarpur, I also had felt that some guy at Bihar SEB was trying to externalise the problem. However, when one of the engineers explained to me the details - how components rejected at other projects have been supplied, how there is no seriousness in the project plan, I could sense something amiss.
Now comes the story of the ineptitude of BHEL and NTPC in Bihar. They have not been able to keep any of the commitment they made to Bihar Govt. For a change, one finds Bihar Govt doing a proper appraisal and putting the blame where it is rather than follow the tradition of blaming the hapless BSEB. In fact, the power minister of Bihar was so miffed that he wishes to discuss the option of scrapping the contract with BHEL and NTPC with the central power minister.
Such confidence should do a lot of good to the governance in Bihar.
Now comes the story of the ineptitude of BHEL and NTPC in Bihar. They have not been able to keep any of the commitment they made to Bihar Govt. For a change, one finds Bihar Govt doing a proper appraisal and putting the blame where it is rather than follow the tradition of blaming the hapless BSEB. In fact, the power minister of Bihar was so miffed that he wishes to discuss the option of scrapping the contract with BHEL and NTPC with the central power minister.
Such confidence should do a lot of good to the governance in Bihar.
Monday, September 10, 2007
A very humane Chief Minister
Politicians in India have come to acquire a rather nasty image. In such a scenario, images of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar come out strikingly different.
Soon after his coming to power, the Patna West MLA and a close friend of Nitish Kumar, Naveen Kumar Sinha passed away. The pictures taken at the time showed a tearful Nitish as he attended his creamation. Nitish lost his wife a couple of months back due to pneumonia complications. People saw a grieving CM captured weeping inconsolably on TV as he took her for her last rites. Just a couple of days back, there was the sudden death of the Bihar Education Secretary on whom Nitish was relying very heavily to bring in reforms in the education system. Picutres of Nitish were published with visibly moist eyes as he went to pay his last respects.
Conditioned as we are by the culture of the modern Indian metros (and away from the rural culture of India), we may find such public display of emotion rather odd. The western culture even considers tears in the eyes of an adult male as a sign of wekaness. However, expression of such genuine human emotions can only come from a man deeply imbued in humanism. Only a person who is confident will not feel shy to show his emotions even under the glare of media. It feels great that even today, such a humanist is able to hold his own in rough and tumble of Indian politics. This certianly fills me with a lot of hope and optimism.
Soon after his coming to power, the Patna West MLA and a close friend of Nitish Kumar, Naveen Kumar Sinha passed away. The pictures taken at the time showed a tearful Nitish as he attended his creamation. Nitish lost his wife a couple of months back due to pneumonia complications. People saw a grieving CM captured weeping inconsolably on TV as he took her for her last rites. Just a couple of days back, there was the sudden death of the Bihar Education Secretary on whom Nitish was relying very heavily to bring in reforms in the education system. Picutres of Nitish were published with visibly moist eyes as he went to pay his last respects.
Conditioned as we are by the culture of the modern Indian metros (and away from the rural culture of India), we may find such public display of emotion rather odd. The western culture even considers tears in the eyes of an adult male as a sign of wekaness. However, expression of such genuine human emotions can only come from a man deeply imbued in humanism. Only a person who is confident will not feel shy to show his emotions even under the glare of media. It feels great that even today, such a humanist is able to hold his own in rough and tumble of Indian politics. This certianly fills me with a lot of hope and optimism.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Gauravshali Bihar e-book version
Bihar is renowned for its great historical legacy and rich cultural heritage. This great land of Ashoka and Buddha has been the motherland of some great legends of human civilization. To recognize these great legends and pay a small tribute to our motherland we came out with a book titled “Gauravshali Bihar” last year .You can read about the launch of this book here.
One Bihar team has decided to make this book free for circulation and now the book is available for free circulation in the e-book version. Please click here to download the free to circulate version. Do pass it to your friends and colleagues who are interested in reading about the legends of this great land which is know as the soul of India.
We will also be publishing the English version of this book shortly and it will be available for sale in the next few months. Thanks for reading and don't forget to give your valuable feedback and suggestion.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Days of one sided Bihar coverge is over
This had to happen. I am so glad it has finally happened. The realization that there is more to the barrage of negative news emanating from Bihar than a desire to expose wrong doings. Or even a neutral desire to report the happenings. Such news, inevitably accompanied by commentary like "the most lawless state", "the state where civilization has ended", "where the state has withered away", are an attempt to sully our image. It is meant to take away our self confidence so that we dare not ask for what is rightfully ours.
If a rape took place in Delhi, a snide link was created with Bihar. If there was a bomb blast in Mumbai, there were allusions to Bihar. The one that I found the most hilarious in this ever growing and long list was one linking Bihar to Katara and his human trafficking business.
We Biharis, having been brought up in a culture nurtured by nationalists like Dr Rajendra Prasad, Sri Krishna Singh, Anugrah Babu and JP, had a misplaced faith in the impartiality of national institutions like the national press, the national planning commission and so on. This misplaced faith was so deeply ingrained that we always justified their sins of commissions and omissions. When Indian Express exposed the Bhagalpur blindings, we genuinely felt that it is an attempt to improve the Bihari society, not to denigrate it. When MV Kamath wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India that Biharis are not fit to rule Bihar, we somehow convinced ourselves that it is genuine criticism. When hare brained schemes like freight equalization scheme were introduced, we bore its brunt for the national cause. When NHAI drew up the alignment of the Golden Quadrilateral or the East West corridor through Bihar (and Jharkhand) bypassing our population centers, we never complained. When the Central Water Commission gave us its misplaced embankments for flood control, we did not find anything amiss. And the flood prone area of Bihar increased from 2.5 M hectares to 7 M hectares. And this went on for sixty years!!
With increased exposure to the world, there is now a realization that there is no benign external agency that will look after our needs. WE have to fight our own battle. And this realization is now finding expression in various forms. Here are two samples. Mayank Rasu gives expression to his angst in Musings of a Bihari. And Sunny writes a satirical piece in a similar vein.
People are even questioning the alacrity with which the media highlighted the Nathnagar case. What were TV cameramen doing in this remote town? How could they film the sad incident and telecast it immediately? Did they try to intervene or were they also part of the mob? These are questions being asked by Mr Indra Sharma.
The new found confidence of Bihari has resulted in a sea change in attitude and he is not willing to take things lying down. He is in a mood to question Shivraj Patil why he is so slothful in giving security to the poor Bihari in Assam. He wants to know from Chidambaram what happened to his solemn promise in the parliament that Bihar would be given a special financial package? He wishes to question Saifuddin Soz what is Central Water Commission doing to reduce the flood menace. And if they fail, Bihari is in a mood to take them to task and ensure that his genuine interests are not compromised.
If a rape took place in Delhi, a snide link was created with Bihar. If there was a bomb blast in Mumbai, there were allusions to Bihar. The one that I found the most hilarious in this ever growing and long list was one linking Bihar to Katara and his human trafficking business.
We Biharis, having been brought up in a culture nurtured by nationalists like Dr Rajendra Prasad, Sri Krishna Singh, Anugrah Babu and JP, had a misplaced faith in the impartiality of national institutions like the national press, the national planning commission and so on. This misplaced faith was so deeply ingrained that we always justified their sins of commissions and omissions. When Indian Express exposed the Bhagalpur blindings, we genuinely felt that it is an attempt to improve the Bihari society, not to denigrate it. When MV Kamath wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India that Biharis are not fit to rule Bihar, we somehow convinced ourselves that it is genuine criticism. When hare brained schemes like freight equalization scheme were introduced, we bore its brunt for the national cause. When NHAI drew up the alignment of the Golden Quadrilateral or the East West corridor through Bihar (and Jharkhand) bypassing our population centers, we never complained. When the Central Water Commission gave us its misplaced embankments for flood control, we did not find anything amiss. And the flood prone area of Bihar increased from 2.5 M hectares to 7 M hectares. And this went on for sixty years!!
With increased exposure to the world, there is now a realization that there is no benign external agency that will look after our needs. WE have to fight our own battle. And this realization is now finding expression in various forms. Here are two samples. Mayank Rasu gives expression to his angst in Musings of a Bihari. And Sunny writes a satirical piece in a similar vein.
People are even questioning the alacrity with which the media highlighted the Nathnagar case. What were TV cameramen doing in this remote town? How could they film the sad incident and telecast it immediately? Did they try to intervene or were they also part of the mob? These are questions being asked by Mr Indra Sharma.
The new found confidence of Bihari has resulted in a sea change in attitude and he is not willing to take things lying down. He is in a mood to question Shivraj Patil why he is so slothful in giving security to the poor Bihari in Assam. He wants to know from Chidambaram what happened to his solemn promise in the parliament that Bihar would be given a special financial package? He wishes to question Saifuddin Soz what is Central Water Commission doing to reduce the flood menace. And if they fail, Bihari is in a mood to take them to task and ensure that his genuine interests are not compromised.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Conspicuous by its absence
Many many years ago, while being taught English at my school at Patna, I recall being taught the expression "conspicuous by its absence". The expression greatly appealed to my adolescent mind - the apparent contradiction of being absent and yet conspicuous. If one thing deserves to be described as such, it is the coverage of the recent floods in the Indian Mainstream media (MSM). Prof Madhukar Shukla of XLRI Jamshedpur brought this to my notice.
BBC ran a story for several weeks giving us details of the floods which has affected several states of India, besides Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The poignant “Aid Worker Dairy” is there on the web for all to read. The UN called it the worst floods in living memory. From NY Times to several other prestigious global newspapers and media, there has been fairly comprehensive coverage of this humungous human tragedy. The Japanese PM during his visit to Delhi delivered a speech in the Indian parliament. His speech started with a tribute to those who had lost their life in the floods in Bihar.
Contrast this with the almost total absence of the coverage in the Indian MSM. Take any national media - TV, newspaper or magazines, either of English or Hindi. You would hardly find any reference to it. The only exceptions were when Lalu criticized Nitish for being in Mauritius later followed by criticism of Lalu for his helicopter fiasco - in short when there was a stick to beat Bihar and Biharis.
There is hardly any reference to the repeated release of water from the dams of Nepal. There is no reporting of the misery of the poor stranded on the highways. There is no reporting of the Rs 1500 crore allotted by the state Government for the cause of flood relief. There is no recognition of the tireless effort of dedicated officers like Ratn Sanjay and Sudhanshu Kumar who have been working for the welfare of the flood victims without a break. Alas, there is no concern for the imminent outbreak of water borne disease once the water starts to recede.
Agencies like OXFAM and Aid India are doing commendable work on the ground. Multinationals like GE have contributed water treatment plants for the flood affected. Punjab Government is sending fodder for the cattle of flood affected Bihar. Experts like Dinesh Mishra and Eklayva Prasad are advocating their alternatives for water management. As Dinesh Mishra says, the flood prone area of Bihar has increased from 2 M hectares in 1955 when the embankments were started to be built to 7 M when we have several thousand kilometers of them in Bihar. But I have not yet heard of a debate on the abject failure of the Nehruvian temples of modern India in the “conscientious” and free Indian MSM.
A few months ago, some people were discussing the lack of developmental benefits reaching the poorer sections of the society. In this context, someone asked "Does Bihar Matter?" As a take on that, I was tempted to put the headline of this post as "Does India Matter?" After all, there is more international concern for the floods in Bihar than in the Indian MSM. But then I checked myself, for India does matter – may not be to the Indian MSM or the insular civil society in the metros, but to the mainstream Indian population. It does matter to Bihar, the Heart of India, appropriately placed a little to the left of centre in the upper part of its map.
In a documentary prepared by Mr Dinesh Mishra’s team on the floods of Bihar, there is a scene where India’s Independence Day is being celebrated in a village affected by the floods. The village headman unfurls the flag on a bamboo post to the singing of the national anthem followed by cries of Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Long Live Mother India) by semi clad children of the village. India might have given up on Bihar, but Bihar has not given up on India – it never will.
Bihar – the Heart of India, is also the name of a book by Sir John Houlton published in 1949). To be fair, sensitive Indians are very concerned about the floods
BBC ran a story for several weeks giving us details of the floods which has affected several states of India, besides Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The poignant “Aid Worker Dairy” is there on the web for all to read. The UN called it the worst floods in living memory. From NY Times to several other prestigious global newspapers and media, there has been fairly comprehensive coverage of this humungous human tragedy. The Japanese PM during his visit to Delhi delivered a speech in the Indian parliament. His speech started with a tribute to those who had lost their life in the floods in Bihar.
Contrast this with the almost total absence of the coverage in the Indian MSM. Take any national media - TV, newspaper or magazines, either of English or Hindi. You would hardly find any reference to it. The only exceptions were when Lalu criticized Nitish for being in Mauritius later followed by criticism of Lalu for his helicopter fiasco - in short when there was a stick to beat Bihar and Biharis.
There is hardly any reference to the repeated release of water from the dams of Nepal. There is no reporting of the misery of the poor stranded on the highways. There is no reporting of the Rs 1500 crore allotted by the state Government for the cause of flood relief. There is no recognition of the tireless effort of dedicated officers like Ratn Sanjay and Sudhanshu Kumar who have been working for the welfare of the flood victims without a break. Alas, there is no concern for the imminent outbreak of water borne disease once the water starts to recede.
Agencies like OXFAM and Aid India are doing commendable work on the ground. Multinationals like GE have contributed water treatment plants for the flood affected. Punjab Government is sending fodder for the cattle of flood affected Bihar. Experts like Dinesh Mishra and Eklayva Prasad are advocating their alternatives for water management. As Dinesh Mishra says, the flood prone area of Bihar has increased from 2 M hectares in 1955 when the embankments were started to be built to 7 M when we have several thousand kilometers of them in Bihar. But I have not yet heard of a debate on the abject failure of the Nehruvian temples of modern India in the “conscientious” and free Indian MSM.
A few months ago, some people were discussing the lack of developmental benefits reaching the poorer sections of the society. In this context, someone asked "Does Bihar Matter?" As a take on that, I was tempted to put the headline of this post as "Does India Matter?" After all, there is more international concern for the floods in Bihar than in the Indian MSM. But then I checked myself, for India does matter – may not be to the Indian MSM or the insular civil society in the metros, but to the mainstream Indian population. It does matter to Bihar, the Heart of India, appropriately placed a little to the left of centre in the upper part of its map.
In a documentary prepared by Mr Dinesh Mishra’s team on the floods of Bihar, there is a scene where India’s Independence Day is being celebrated in a village affected by the floods. The village headman unfurls the flag on a bamboo post to the singing of the national anthem followed by cries of Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Long Live Mother India) by semi clad children of the village. India might have given up on Bihar, but Bihar has not given up on India – it never will.
Bihar – the Heart of India, is also the name of a book by Sir John Houlton published in 1949). To be fair, sensitive Indians are very concerned about the floods
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Seeking Support for Flood Relief in Bihar
Bihar has seen one of the worst floods in recent times and we are working towards getting some medicines,funds,cloths and any other help for the flood relief work in Bihar. I am presently working with a team which is providing direct help to people who have been affected by the floods in Bihar and also coordinating with people from other organizations in getting whatever possible help we can. Some of the organizations have agreed to provide medicine, machine for clean water and even basic relief material like plastic sheets.
Unfortunately the magnitude of disaster and loss of life has not been widely covered by popular media so we are finding it difficult to drum support for this cause. Our effort intends to provide direct relief to people in need and we are soliciting help from all quarters, especially Biharis who can make some contribution for this cause.
Our team members from the One Bihar Team are diligently working 24*7 for this operation and we desperately need some help from every quarter.Do let me know if your organization or you as an individual would like to contribute for this humanitarian cause. Please let me know in case you are willing to support us in whatever way you can. We are also seeking contributions through Prayaas please come forward and lend your support.
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