Shades of Gray

Sometime back, Rajdeep Sardesai wrote an interesting article about the state of infrastructure in Maharashtra. It’s just that he used an offending title for his piece – ‘Is Maharashtra the new Bihar?’

It’s not that I am new to hearing such things about my home state. I am used to hearing all kinds of weird statements being made about the culture and people of Bihar. What upsets me is that a large section of Indian population thinks that nothing can be as bad as Bihar. But then it is just not true. The infamy that Bihar has earned is, to a large extent, due to the antics of the man who ruled Bihar for almost 15 years. During his (mis)rule, Lalu Yadav single-handedly undid all the good work Biharis had done throughout the history of India.

The image of Biharis across India was determined solely by Yadav’s activities and utterances. And we grew used to hearing things like – So you are a Bihari? But you don’t sound like one !…Do you still visit Bihar? Is it true, all this news about lawlessness? Is it safe to walk with your family during the day? Often during casual conversations, people remark, “Yeh kardi na tumne ek dum bihariyon waali baat“. Translated loosely, it means ‘What you have said is typical of a Bihari’.

If answering this was not enough, I was shocked when I came across the profile of a Delhi-based girl on the social networking site orkut. She had written in her profile – ‘Do not add me if you are a Bihari’. This was an insult I just couldn’t handle. But there is little I could have done than move to another page. The young girl had forgotten that her capital city of Delhi records more cases of rape than does the state capital Patna. Just as people who mock us Biharis forget that year after year, the highest number of students joining IITs and UPSC are from Bihar. Not to forget that the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad hailed from Bihar.

Now, back to Rajdeep’s article. He wrote that the condition of roads in Maharashtra is as bad as in Bihar and if this sorry state of affairs continues, Maharashtra could well be the new Bihar. But Bihar hasn’t done that bad. If you look at the sources of revenue, Maharashtra is better placed than Bihar. Because of high taxes, professional taxes, octroi and other sources of income, the money that it has far exceeds that available to the Government of Bihar. Still, if infrastructure in poor, shouldn’t Maharashtra be dubbed more inefficient than Bihar?

If you look at some other parameters, Bihar is not as bad as it is regularly made out to be. The naxalite situation is equally grave in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The toilet usage in Maharashtra is much below the national average (Bihar ranks better) and the communal harmony in Bihar is way ahead of that in the economic powerhouse that is Gujarat. Even Prosperous and so-called forward states like Punjab and Haryana fare much more poorly than Bihar when it comes to female foeticide and infanticide and criminalization of politics is more acute in neighboring Uttar Pradesh than it is in Bihar.

I do not wish to argue than my state is the best. No! It’s not and in fact, when you take all parameters into consideration, it would definitely rank below all the other states I have mentioned here. But please think twice before asking us those questions. We are better than others in some parameters and will surely realize our potential with time.

Lalu Yadav’s speech reinforced the image of the Bihari as a loud and uncultured oaf. We cried ourselves hoarse that not all Biharis are like that, but to no avail. The nation only believed what Lalu was doing. Now, that our beloved Laluji has lectured at IIM-A, there is some hope of redeeming our lost honour.