Bihar stereotype, poverty of culture reaffirmed by MLAs like Shyam Bahadur Singh

The comical sight of a Janata Dal (U) legislator from Barhariya in Siwan district, Shyam Bahadur Singh, awkwardly dancing a suggestive jig with nautch girls only goes to reaffirm a stereotype about Bihar – that it is a state with acute poverty of culture and a lumpenised legacy of politics. Ironically this imagery –  reflected in a video of the MLA that has since gone viral – is not entirely untrue. It would not be wrong to say that the people of Bihar have earned it well-deservedly. People who vote for Shyam Bahadur Singh and his ilk all across the state cannot then escape the responsibility for electing the people they deserve.

Singh is not an aberration but rather a trend. After all, look at the manner in which one of the biggest gangsters of the state and ex-MP, Mohammad Shahabuddin, is being treated in jail and at the All India Institute of Medical science (AIIMS) in Delhi. He looks like an honourable member of the ruling class, not a criminal charged with murders. The gait in his walk belies any impression of being a convict and a criminal. Far from it, police officers accompanying him look like minions tending to their master. Over the years, the state got dwarfed as criminals and thugs emerged as powerful leaders representing various caste groups. Perhaps acclaimed political scientist Rajni Kothari’s thesis has turned on its head, as politics of caste led to lumpenisation of castes and the society. Guns and muscle matter more than anything else in politics. Morality and ethics are expedient at pragmatism. It was in the backdrop of despondency and dejected cynicism, that the emergence of leaders like Nitish Kumar gave a ray of hope. He defied the stereotype of Bihar and came across as a sober and sagacious voice. Despite the fact that his alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav was much frowned upon, Nitish Kumar remained a flickering hope to restore Bihar to sanity. His decision to ban liquor across the state was seen as a sequel to social reform – something that is rarely initiated in politics. He was seen as someone who will bring a “revolution from above” in Bihar, to borrow from social scientist Dipankar Gupta’s phrase. Nitish Kumar listed prohibition as one of his major achievements, and has been campaigning across the state since with promises of making the entire country liquor-free. Herein lies the rub. It will be quite unconvincing for people of other states to believe in Kumar’s words when his own legislators – like Shyam Bahadur Singh – openly defy the prohibition and flaunt their misdemeanours as achievements. Similarly, the state has once again started looking subservient to gangsters and thugs – who thrive under the patronage of the ruling power’s dispensation. Obviously, there is little doubt that the hard-earned goodwill will fritter away sooner rather than later. The people of Bihar will continue to make political choices – irrespective of party domination – that will embarrass them more, than bringing laurels from elsewhere in the country. That Siwan is identified with people like Shyam Bahadur Singh, Shahabuddin, Prabhunath Singh or Dhumal Singh is nothing less than a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Bihar. Each of them has a past which is not to be proud of. Yet, all of them have acquired a social status befitting of royalty. But was Siwan always like this? Barely a few kilometres away from the district headquarters lies a place called Ziradei, where India’s first President Rajendra Prasad’s house is preserved as a monument. Mahatma Gandhi visited that house. Dr Rajendra Prasad, who had a roaring practice in Patna, gave up all luxuries to follow the path of Gandhi. More recently, Jayaprakash Narain, better known as JP, who came from this region captured the people’s imagination across India against the tyranny of Indira Gandhi, in the seventies. But, can a Rajendra Prasad or a JP be called upon for moral regeneration, while keeping a Shyam Bahadur Singh as August company? It seems that the politicians of Bihar need as much introspection as the people of Bihar.