VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
With Narendra Modi taking over as
the Prime Minister of the country, there is buzz and anticipation about the
Gujarat model of development, triggering a debate whether it can be replicated
elsewhere in the country even with a reduced rate of success.
I am writing this week’s column
from a small town in north Bihar so it would be prudent
to examine development and social parameters along with the milieu in which it
has been set in to see if it is practical to expect that the Gujarat
model can ever be implemented in Bihar to any degree.
As the economy progresses and
urbanisation increases, caste takes a backseat. It loosened its grip in Gujarat
long time back even though Congress came out with the imaginative abbreviation
of KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) almost four decades ago and
exploited it for electoral ends. As aspirations rose, KHAM collapsed, so did
Congress and BJP reigned supreme in the coastal State due to its government
policies tailor-made for the State.
On the other hand, in Bihar ,
there is little sign of caste losing its strong grip not only in social
interaction but also in politics. In fact, the impressive performance of BJP in
Lok Sabha polls here was due to consolidation of votes of upper castes,
non-Yadav and non-Kurmi OBCs and Dalits. Of course, polarisation and Modi
factor too were catalysts in this but caste as always played a crucial role in
electoral outcome.
Then, there is a historical
disadvantage which Bihar faces. Gujarat
was always known for trade and commerce even in the ancient and medieval
periods of history. It had a port for foreign trade even in the days of Indus
Valley Bihar , on the contrary, never had a
knack for money economy, dependent as it was on agriculture and exporting its
talent to rest of the country through its universities (Nalanda). So there is
no comparison there.
In the last three-four decades
when the Gujaratis were moving to all corners of the world for exploring new
business avenues, people from Bihar were more interested in getting into the
civil services due to the conditioning dating back to the British period that
power vests only in the District Magistrates and Secretaries to the Government.
Due to historical and
geographical advantage, you always had heavy industrialisation in Gujarat .
Only the type of industry changed over a period of time from textiles to oil to
pharmaceuticals to finance to manufacturing. But in Bihar ,
there is practically no medium scale private sector what to talk of large scale
and heavy industrialisation. Private sector employment is limited to the buses
as drivers and conductors, in big shops as attendants and as seasonal laborers
in the sugar mills of north Bihar .
In Gujarat ,
almost everyone wants to become an entrepreneur and start their own business
due to social and religious conditioning of centuries and favorable factors, in
Bihar everyone wants the security of a government job
and would happily give his right arm for it, even for the job of a peon. In Bihar ,
government is still seen as the Mai-Baap the way it was seen in British
India , underlying a strong presence of feudal value system but in Gujarat
it is merely seen as a facilitator for the people and their enterprise.
So where is the meeting point?
Social, cultural, historical, cultural, geographical… in fact, all factors are
entirely different in all States. It is here that Narendra Modi has a
challenge. Not only Bihar , all States of the country have
their own strengths and weaknesses and that has to be factored in for making a
plan for micro-policies, block and sub-division specific, district specific and
then State specific. No development model can ever be imported and imposed on a
State without factoring in the local factors.
From where will the Modi
Government start in Bihar or for that matter in Uttar
Pradesh or West Bengal ? Riding a wave of expectations,
it simply cannot afford the model which the UPA Government adopted and
perfected over the years — shut your eyes to the problem.
You cannot develop
entrepreneurial skills overnight in anyone. So, it will take time before people
from any region take to risk taking, money management and business like in Gujarat .
But, agriculture and allied sectors could be the area which requires a big push
at this juncture. I was surprised to know that most of the fish eaten in Bihar
comes from faraway Andhra Pradesh. People of Bihar eat a
copious amount of fish and there is hardly any local produce except from the
rivers.
There is little being done to
promote allied agricultural activities. Of course, some farmers in Bihar
are trying to diversify but there is hardly any institutional support for them.
In north Bihar , the sugar belt, farmers are sowing
sugarcane, waiting for a year and then selling the produce to the mills. This
is profitable but they have little to do between sowing time and harvest and
this is a period of 11 months. This time could be used to bring in new skills
to them through government sponsored centres in specific courses. People would
simply line up to acquire new skills and use them for generating wealth for
themselves and the society.
Infrastructural handicap is
there. Electricity is too erratic and it is hardly an area of concern for
anyone. If gas-based power plants could come up elsewhere, why not in Bihar ?
In fact, the State could go in for developing hydro projects in neighbouring Nepal
as well in joint ventures provided the political will is there. But it seems a
far cry. Roads are in good shape in the state as Nitish Kumar had done well on
that front. But still, I don’t know why some of the National Highways are in
very bad shape.
There is simply no planning as
projects are being taken on a case to case basis without a holistic approach.
This needs to be overhauled. A case in point is a river bridge to connect Uttar
Pradesh to Bihar which was inaugurated on river Gandak
in November last year, reducing the distance between the two States and giving
a direct and short connectivity to Delhi .
Even though the bridge was constructed, there was no attempt to work on the
approach road which remains a broken a single lane road. The officials who
traversed on this single lane poorly maintained road must have noticed it but
made no efforts to convert it to two-lane in the four years the bridge took for
construction. So, few would use the new bridge unless the approach road is in
shape. How could any official miss this?
Each model of development has to
be different from the other, keeping in view the local strengths and
weaknesses. The Modi Government has to look into this, rope in the experts and
formulate a long term holistic policy. Micro-planning and strategy would be the
key to success. (June 2, 1014)
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