The Rediff Special/B G Verghese

There is a clear and obvious lack of political will among the ruling elite which feels threatened by grassroots democracy

Apart from Karpoori Thakur, not one member of his council of ministers was in the least interested, including those whose departments were to be directly involved. MLAs of all hues were indifferent. University faculty and Patna academics, barring a handful, were disdainful. The local bureaucracy was for the most part unconcerned and most 'outside' officials, with notable exceptions, cynical. Delhi did not care: not the political leadership, not the Planning Commission or concerned officials barring one or two.

Agrarian reforms for most has been and remains a played out game. They echo what a character in Alice in Wonderland or 'Through the Looking Glass' had to say about a promised pudding that never arrived: "I don't think the pudding has been cooked; I don't think the pudding will ever be cooked; but it was a very clever pudding to invent."

The cold indifference to Kosi Kranti in Bihar, however, concealed an underlying hostility which surfaced as soon as some little movement was discerned on the ground in the selected Purnea blocks. The local MLA with some others took the lead in denouncing the experiment and warned that persistence with the project would convert Kosi Kranti into Khooni Kranti. Karpoori Thakur passed away. P S Appu had earlier moved from Bihar in sheer frustration; though his worthy successor, K A Ramasubramanian, tried to push forward with the project, the political impetus weakened and Kosi Kranti faded away.

More recently one hears of the innovative efforts of P R Mishra, the moving spirit behind the highly acclaimed Sukhomajri project near Chandigarh. He has launched the Chakriya Vikas Pranali in some 30 villages in Palamau in Chota Nagpur to regenerate degraded, drought-prone lands through careful land and water management and a multi-layered, multi-cropping farming system in which the returns are shared between the landowners, labourer and a village development fund. This is only to illustrate that Bihar has never lacked innovative and 'dedicated minds that could transform the state.

At a very different level, the Sulabh International's work and Bhangi Mukti Morcha programme under Bindeshwar Pathak offers another example of Bihari initiative and response that is most gratifying. Bihar can do it.

Panchayati raj under the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments, properly implemented, could be transforming. That is precisely what Bihar's political leadership apprehends. The state was required to and did pass legislation to ensure that the old panchayat system was upgraded to conform to the new constitutional requirements. But apart from Orissa, Bihar is the only state that is yet to hold panchayat elections under the new dispensation.

Meanwhile, the old system continues at the panchayat and block samiti levels with nominated members filling a 1978-79 elective membership! The Bihar government wished to provide electoral and executive reservation for OBCs in the new panchayati raj structure. This was challenged and struck down by the high court. The government has appealed and the matter is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

There is, however, a clear and obvious lack of political will among the ruling elite which feels threatened by grassroots democracy and the greater accountability and transparency that it is likely to compel. The new law provides for one-third reservation for women in all three panchayati tiers as well as reservation in the usual manner for scheduled castes and tribes. Things could get out of hand! All this could legitimise honest and efficient performance and exert upward pressure to de-criminalise politics. Here is yet another shabby reply of the land-caste-feudal syndrome.

The municipalities and corporations face the same predicament at a time when urban decay in Bihar cries out for redress. The 74th Amendment awaits implementation.

Mr Verghese's comments form part of the Kedar Nath Singh Memorial Lecture which he delivered in Chhapra, Bihar, recently.

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