Bihar Election: Questions Voters Should Be Asking For

The Jan Suraaj, Bihar and the Biharis Abroad
As Biharis in general, settled abroad, don’t prefer to make their two cents investment in the future of Bihar, a few Biharis deserve compliments for at least following the developments or shedding the spotlight on the land of our origin.
With regard to Prashant Kishor, they seem to have been naturally impressed by the trendy flavor just as in the post-JP movement and post-Anna movement period, their hopes were raised by fraudulent leaders like Lalu Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal.
In current circumstances, I observed on a social media platform that the Biharis wanted, in one word, a leader and a Chief Minister like Yogi Adityanath on “Steroid” (i.e., a shepherd with 10 times more vision and 20 times more speedy administrative effectiveness). However, unfortunately, Yogi is likely to be used by the BJP as a principal campaigner in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha election in Bihar where its current leaders are the likes of Dilip Jaisawal and Samrat Chaudhary.
In the sordid scenario of leadership vacuum in Bihar, therefore, it’s natural to be attracted by a relatively new face. In that respect, Prashant Kishor occupies a central place in the current race of leadership. Many learned analysts of Bihar in India and abroad seem to have fallen for him.
The following is a list of articles written by me from time to time on Prashant Kishor. I hope the readers and other friends will find some time to browse through them.
Articles Online
(I)
https://www.indiancentury.in/…/exchange-of-views-on…/
Exchange of Views on Gandhi, Jan Suraaj and Prashant Kishor
by Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad Oct 29, 2024
(II)
The Minority Card by Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad Oct 5, 2024
(III)
https://www.indiancentury.in/…/political-pundit…/
Political Pundit Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj by Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad, Sep 25, 2024
Articles in a Book
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556589493271
(I)
Dangers of Leadership Like Prashant Kishor’s by Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad in Dynamics of the State of Bihar and Other Essays (2022), p. 80
(II)
Nitish Should Offer a Logical Retort to the CAA Opponents by Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad in Dynamics of the State of Bihar and Other Essays (2022), p. 75
The Follow-up Discussion
Professor Emeritus Murari Sharan Verma, my life-long mentor and guide, perhaps, not very impressed by my suggestion of the ‘Yogi model’ offered his following comment:
“Bihar, like any other part of the country, is in search of moral, fair, strict and people-friendly leadership. The J.P. movement and the Anna movement were responses to this need. There is perhaps none to fill in the vacuum. Don’t be misled by propaganda. The ground reality is actually disappointing.There can be no compromise on the basic principles laid down in the Constitution. No political party has the legitimate right to alter the basic essence and spirit of the Constitution unless it gets a mandate from the people for the purpose. It is, after all, the General Will which must prevail.”

A friend from our JNU years in the 80’s, Dp (as we lovingly called him), made the following observation:
“Bihar’s search for effective leadership is far from over. While new faces like Prashant Kishor capture imagination, lasting change will likely require both visionary leadership and broad-based civic engagement — including by the diaspora.
The challenge is not just to find a powerful leader, but to build institutions, nurture local talent, and foster a culture of accountability and sustained development.
Thank you for sharing your insights and writing on this crucial subject. Voices like yours help keep the dream for a better Bihar alive and remind all Biharis — at home and abroad — of the importance of continued engagement.”
I was so moved by what Dp said that I quickly scribbled a note to him (Dp is one of those friends who didn’t come from Bihar, but primarily because of his closeness to us, he and friends like him are the ardent well-wishers of Bihar):
I wrote:
“Dp, I’m so delighted to have your comment, thanks, Please allow me to pick up your very concise and insightful suggestions and parse them a little.
You say, “..The challenge is not just to find a powerful leader, but to build institutions, nurture local talent, and foster a culture of accountability and sustained development..”
On Leadership
On “powerful leader”, we may be reminded that after two election victories in 2005 and 2010, Nitish became lackadaisical and focused mainly on safeguarding his chair and dominance in Bihar politics. Bad governance, criminality, corruption and near-absence of justice-system — that were just dormant — returned. The BJP floated leaders like Jaisawals, Samrats or others purely based on caste-equation in the society or politics of Bihar. In 2020, as Nitish asked for replacement of Sushil Modi, the BJP nominated two of its Deputy CMs — utterly ineffective, uninspiring and again based on caste and gender considerations. Eventually, they faded.
As for the current state-unit BJP president – Dilip Jaisawal – his real identity was recently ripped open by Prashant Kishor: An ex-Congressman and a political deal-broker, he’s alleged to have usurped a Sikh-minority run medical college management from where he favored dozens of politicians and administrators by showering medical degrees on their relatives. Under the ministerial patronage and cover-up of Dilip Jaisawal, the medical center’s records showed massive misappropriation of a federal medical grant, “aayushman bharat” The BJP central leadership amazingly sat silent on this.
The JDU hasn’t presented any credible line of leadership that might succeed Nitish. In the confusion, Lalu’s son, Tejaswi Yadav, with his vote bank possibly intact, might get an edge in the forthcoming election.
There doesn’t seem to be any effort by any political formation to recruit or make room for honest, characterful, educated, youth, dedicated to public service, with the result that the Bihari society has remained deprived of being led by new competent leadership.
The reason I mentioned Yogi as the desirable model CM for Bihar is because only a leader like him would set the goal and try to accomplish it within a reasonable time without entertaining any kind of interference. Yogi, in my opinion, stood out because he was ever willing to relinquish rather than kowtowing to the dictates of the centralized leadership in New Delhi. Because of his time-bound developmental accomplishments against all odds, he couldn’t be dwarfed by inner-party machinations against him.
On Building Institutions
On “building institutions,” less said the better. Take any field, governmental or non-governmental in Bihar: district administration, local self-governance, policing, medical or judicial system, financial institutions including banking, village-level administration, elementary to the university level education system or even the workings of the political parties, there’s an all-pervasive dysfunction, corruption and chaos. Either bribe or criminality takes the upper hand. The state couldn’t guarantee anyone the security of life and property.
In my estimation, it will take decades of focused and determined effort to bring all the institutions in Bihar — that began deteriorating rapidly around mid-60’s — back on track. No wonder, Biharis who have even a minimal vision of looking into their future, find ways to escape from Bihar: The social values or standards of Bihar in the past decades seemed to have undergone such a transformation that if a Bihari stays in Bihar, he/she is being scoffed at for not achieving anything distinctive in life!
Then, if a Bihari diaspora, like me, who likes to visit his/her ancestral place periodically and wants to contribute something to the soil they came from, they are persistently counseled to sell whatever property they had in Bihar and move away. The common hints are: “Look, the time is not good,” “See, how so and so sold out all their (ancestral) property and settled happily in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore, Pune or Thane, if not abroad!”
For a decade and a half old social interaction in Bihar, I haven’t come across any one who would even broach or share an idea / plan as to how they could socially / educationally benefit from me with whatever little resources I had. It’s all left to the person who wishes to take a baby step against all impediments.
Apparently, It would take a qualitative transformation of the mindset of the whole generation alongside any meaningful effort at change. This is unlikely to happen in a couple of election-cycles!
[Originally from Darbhanga, Bihar (India), Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad lives in Dundas, Ontario (Canada). He is a former UGC teacher fellow at JNU in India and a Fulbright Scholar in the USA. Author of scholarly works including a book, “Violence Against Minorities”, “Gandhi in the Age of Globalization” (a monograph) and a collection of poems”, Dr Prasad has taught at Ryerson University, Centennial College and McMaster University. He has also been the president of Hamilton based India-Canada Society (2006-08 and 2018-20)]
