BIHAR BETTER?

Nobody expected Nitish Kumar to be in possession of a magic wand, not even his most ardent advocate. And surely a year is too little a period to start undoing a mess so humongous as Bihar. Recent reports out of the state haven’t told us magical tales of transformation. But that should be no comment on Nitish Kumar, this way or that. A year is too little time. What can be taken as a comment on what is probably beginning to happen in Bihar is the language Nitish Kumar himself is speaking. No bluster, no baloney, no trick of charisma or charm, both of which Nitish Kumar summarily lacks. But listen to what he has been saying. Listen and discern the difference. Here is a chief minister talking governance — kilometres of roads built and the mileage left, the acreage under irrigation, the number of schools without teachers and buildings, the number and kind of drugs flowing into government health centres for free distribution, the availability or the lack of funds for this project or that. Bihar should probably thank its luck it has a chief minister who is talking in the manner he is, gives you the sense the state has a minder. It is easy to be lackadaisical in Bihar and get away with it. There is too much to blame — a bankrupt inheritance, a bureaucracy that does not work, a system that has collapsed, a people who are cynical. And if you have political adversaries ruling at the Centre, as Nitish Kumar does, non-performance is a walk in the park. Erect a banner against the Centre, lie underneath. Nitish Kumar has chosen not to do that. He has said he is quite happy with what the Centre is doing for his government. Unusual. But true.