Hridayapath, Dispatch 4 — 'Phirse Modi Ho, Bihar Me Bahar Ho'

Something nags me as I enter Bihar. I was afraid that I was going to miss the warm and fuzzy feelings of the past two days. After witnessing the excitement in Uttar Pradesh (UP), I was worried that I would be taken back to the depressing, bad old days.

My last visit to Bihar was in 2018, to Darbhanga. I had visited an engineering college that was reconverted from a school for shepherds (Laloo's jungle raj has way too many atrocities). The funds given for innovation were put to use to build a compound wall as a protection against gundas! Let us just say that my expectations were not even in the troposphere.

I wondered how much of the melancholy was because of the leadership of the chief ministers of the two states. Leadership is such an amorphous thing. It fills one up with hope or sucks the energy out, even for visitors who are just a few kilometres inside the territory.

As I cross into Gopalganj, roads start to become a little rugged. Bad omens! Andrew Huberman, the star health podcaster, teaches a technique for a "physiological sigh" — two quick breaths in and one slow breath out. It comes handy.

Also, I was dreading conversing in Hindi with people that laced it with Bhojpuri. The only other place in India where I had a language issue was Nuh in Haryana. I was discussing the Hindu-Muslim thing with an interfaith couple. I understood nothing because of the accent, except that they were pissed off.

I felt that I had truly arrived in Bihar only after crossing Ghandak. The interstate borders these days are so characterless. Boo!

Okay, let's get on to some serious content: In this dispatch, we will catch the pulse of North Bihar through three constituencies — West Champaran, East Champaran, and Shehoar. They fall under the Tirhut division. We need to see them as a group to get an idea of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s social engineering. They all vote in the sixth phase on 25 May.

Socio-Economic Status

Approximately 1.3 per cent of the world’s population lives in Bihar. With UP on its way on the path of progress, the development of Bihar should be the top economic priority for India.

Let's look at the poverty statistics for a minute. Good news first: Bihar has recorded the highest reduction in multi-dimensional poverty. Bad news: Bihar is still the poorest state in India.

The Champaran twins have reduced poverty from approximately 60 per cent to 35 per cent. The literacy rate is approximately 75 per cent for men and 50 per cent for women.

An approximate community break-up: Muslims and Yadavs are 16 per cent each. Koeri and Kurmis are 6-8 per cent each. Dalits are 15 per cent. Upper castes are 25 per cent.

Political Context

The population of Paschim Champaran is 80 per cent Hindu. It has been allocated to the Congress from the INDI Alliance. The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) is the BJP's Sanjay Jaiswal. He was the party's state unit president just a couple of years ago. He comes from the baniya community. The BJP's social engineering ensures that the substantial baniya population in Tirhut division is appeased.

Jaiswal has a bit of a colourful history. His father Madan Prasad Jaiswal is an old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) hand and one of the leading lights of the BJP in Bihar. Jaiswal Junior fought with his father and joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to fight for an MLA seat in 2005. He lost badly. The prodigal son returned later. He is a medical doctor by qualification.

Purvi Champaran is mainly known for two things. This is where Mahatma Gandhi started his Satyagraha in 1917 (almost to the date) on behalf of the indigo farmers. Second, a little unknown piece of information is that the great George Orwell was born in Motihari! His father worked for the British Civil Service in the opium department that exported opium to China. (Homework: read up on the "Opium Wars.")

The sitting MP from here is Radha Mohan Singh. He was the Union minister of agriculture in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term. He is also the national vice president of the BJP. He is from the Thakur community.

Rama Devi of the BJP is the sitting MP of Sheohar. She has been replaced because of the age factor. (Remember the misogynistic comment passed by Azam Khan on Rama Devi?) Lovely Anand, the wife of Anand Mohan Singh (who was released in 2023 after being imprisoned in a murder case in 1994), is the candidate. She belongs to the Thakur community, as well. She is against Kathak dancer Ritu Jaiswal, the state spokesperson of the RJD.

A key partner in the INDI Alliance in this region is the Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP). It was started by Mukesh Sahni, who was a Bollywood set designer. VIP was with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) before. It joined the INDI Alliance a few weeks ago. It is contesting both Gopalganj and Purvi Champaran. VIP is backed by the Malla, an Other Backward Class (OBC) community.

These places vote in the sixth phase of the election. So, there is no visible urgency. In fact, the INDI Alliance is yet to announce its candidates in these three places.

Entering Motihari

Motihari welcomes visitors with multiple hoardings of coaching classes. One says it wants to make Motihari the Kota of Bihar. In another one, with more commitment, the tutor has a pi tattooed on his biceps. Motihari is a distinct downgrade from the towns of UP. The infrastructure is poorer and the poverty is more visible.

Pardon me for bringing in Orwell again. I wonder how much of Bihar has influenced Orwell in his dystopian writings, though he stayed here only as a baby. See the picture below of his birthplace. Not an Orwellian one, but it is a nightmare nevertheless.

I moved out of the city watching the dull rural life of Bihar. We stumbled into Sheohar. Then, I committed a cardinal sin!

The Sheohar Squabbles

I interrupted a bunch of people that were playing cards with quite a bit of gusto. Never mind that it was just 11 am. They waved me to a chair, finished their game with Dhoni's calmness, and then turned their collective attention to me.

I was looking for the correct adjective to describe what followed. I settled for rambunctious. A political conversation par none! At the end of the 45 minutes of chat, if they had asked me to pay for participating, I would have gladly done so.

The conversation involved everything — vikas, jaati, CM, PM, MP, daru (liquor), and what not. It is not just the content of the conversation, but the passion and craftiness with which the arguments were presented. It was phenomenal. I thought at some point  that they were going to punch each other. It took me a while to realise that that is how they speak normally.

The group grudgingly admitted that Rama Devi is a "theek hai, jeet jayegi" type of candidate. There was some vociferous argument on how much margin she will win by, ranging from a close victory to a sweep. I tried to moderate, but in vain. I wonder whether Arnab Goswami trained here secretly!

Banias form the largest group in Sheohar. Thakur and Muslims follow in the pecking order. Sanjay Jaiswal is the candidate in Paschim Champaran. So, they are okay with having a Thakur candidate here. There is a sizeable Muslim population in the constituency. Last time, the RJD fielded Syed Fasal Ali, who polled 2.7 lakh votes.

They said that the Janata Dal (United) flip-flop did not matter. Nitish Kumar would not have been able to save his party if not for the paltu. The state government is totally at the mercy of the BJP. Also, Bihar is better off without gunda raj, they opine. They say that caste census is not an election issue. People know the true numbers anyway and what was released in the survey was wrong.

A few admitted that Nitish's paltus felt bad. They said that the BJP's image was going down because they indulged Nitish's drama. They were sure that Bihar would not vote for him in the future.

The daruband (liquor prohibition) also had the group at loggerheads. Some said it was good. Others lamented the increase in "desi daru" and that youngsters go to UP or cross the international border into Nepal to get tipsy. But they agree that women voters are delighted by the ruling, more than the free ration and subsidised LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

The next round was on what percentage of women vote after asking their husbands. They settled for 60 per cent. There was some parallel discussion on the human condition in the context of 5-kg ration and Rs 2,000 Kisan Nidhi.

All of them were some sort of labharthis (beneficiaries). They were happy that money transfer is hassle-free, without bhaag-daud. Youth employment is a samasya (issue). People moved to other parts of India for employment. But they were resigned to the fact.

A point that struck me was when they said people were thrilled that PM Modi had improved "Bharat ki chavi" in the world, especially with the Americans. It filled them with great pride that foreign countries were respecting us. I found the fact that foreign policy was such a big deal to be surprising. I had always thought that poor people had more immediate issues to look out for. Their patriotism was joyful and inspiring.

India's place in the world matters to citizens of the hinterland. The foreign policy mandarins should find new ways of communicating with such citizens that do not "truncate the Ts and roll the Rs." The think-tanks in the cozy enclaves of New Delhi should think about it.

I took a sample poll of the nine people in the conversation. After such a heated debate, eight out of the nine said that they were going to vote for Modi. I burst out laughing, wondering aloud on why they had such a heated debate. We all laughed together. Strangers connected in the throes of deliberative democracy. Social capital improved.

Epilogue

As a parting comment one said, people would vote based on two things — Modi and caste. They love Modi, and the caste combination is right. While the comparatively reticent UPites just said they would vote for Modi, the voluble Biharis just made sure that there were no loose ends in their logic. Ekam Modi, vipra bahuda vadanti.

PS: The title is a pun on the JDU's 2020 campaign.

This report is part of Swarajya's 50 Ground Stories Project - an attempt to throw light on themes and topics that are often overlooked or looked down. You can support this initiative by sponsoring as little as ₹2999. Click here for more details.

Read the previous articles in this series:

Hridayapath, Dispatch 1: What Moradabad, Pilibhit, And Rampur Think About Modi Sarkar And 2024 Election

Hridayapath, Dispatch 2: Discussing National And Local Issues In This Slice Of Northern Uttar Pradesh

Hridayapath, Dispatch 3: The Uttar Pradesh Capstone — Election Trail Chronicles From Ghaziabad To Kushinagar