The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will return to power in Bihar on the basis of development initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Center and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the state, says Sanjay Jha, Bihar’s minister of water resources and national general . secretary of the Janata Dal (United), or JD (U). In an interview with the Hindustan Times, Jha said that the migrant worker issue and the state response to Covid-19 will work to the benefit of the NDA, contrary to the narrative that the opposition is building. Edited excerpts:
There is anti-incumbency against the government of Nitish Kumar. There are issues like employment, law and order, and health care that the government will be questioning about. How well prepared is the NDA?
There was no governance in Bihar prior to 2005. RJD’s 15 years of bad governance left an impact on all aspects of the state and we are left with the legacy of that ‘jungle raj’. But the NDA will return to power with a majority and there are three reasons for that. The first, the decisive and charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Center and Nitish Kumar in the state; the second is the development work carried out by the NDA at the national level as well as throughout the state and the third is that the NDA has given representation to all social segments, today it is a strong social coalition.
By removing from the posters the photo of {its jailed boss} Lalu Prasad Yadav, the RJD cannot erase the 15 years of its misrule that left Bihar with the stigma of ‘raj jungle’.
The opposition and Bihar’s former ally of the NDA, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), have accused the Bihar government of failing the workers. Images of migrant workers returning home on foot, job losses and suffering are expected to have an impact on the elections.
The migrant worker issue will actually work to the benefit of the NDA because workers now know first-hand how well they were cared for by the Bihar government compared to how they were treated by other governments like the Aam Admi Party in Delhi. A large portion of the workers serving Delhi were literally expelled from the state when the lockdown was imposed in March and left to their own devices.
Bihar paid for his trip; We created quarantine centers to break the chain of infection that extends to rural areas. Everyone said Bihar would collapse and there would be heavy casualties, but compare the deaths in Bihar and Maharashtra; we have less than 1,000 deaths, while in Maharashtra the number is over 40,000. Our recovery rate is among the best; there is something that the government of Nitish Kumar did well.
Even in the quarantine centers, where 15-20 lakh people stayed, we made sure that people were cared for and treated with dignity. We spent Rs. 5,300 per person in these centers. (Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtra were 42,115 and in Bihar 996, as of Monday.)
What about employment pathways for these returned workers who do not want to migrate to earn a living?
We were the first state to conduct worker skills mapping. We provide assistance to those who wish to start working in Bihar. At Champaran, for example, we have given the space and the people who were engaged in textile manufacturing have already started production and are receiving orders from customers in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Handmade Madhubani art masks are a popular purchase on platforms like Amazon. In Sapaul, they have received orders to make Ladakh leather jackets … the transformation has begun.
His party is one of the few that has presented more candidates than in the last elections. Was this a conscious decision, given that women tend to be under-represented in the assembly?
It was the Nitish Kumar government that actually paid attention to women and divided them into constituencies. While others focused on religion and caste, we saw the importance of women as a constituency. In the last 15 years, our government has been committed to the empowerment of women; and you see the results on the ground. We were the first government to announce a 50% reserve for women in local bodies in 2006. Since then, more than 50% of women have been elected to these local bodies. Prohibition; Schemes like girls’ cycles, etc., are all reform efforts that took place in Bihar with women taking center stage.
How do you perceive the persistent attacks by the LJP against the JD (U) and the simultaneous claim that it will form a government with the BJP after November 10?
Bihar voters are smart and they vote decisively. Bihar voters are not fooled by vote-cutters, nor are they wasting their votes. The BJP leadership, including Interior Minister Amit Shah, has unequivocally said that the NDA will form the government with Nitish Kumar as chief minister.
Its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, believes that RJD has given space to extremist ideology by partnering with parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, and left-wing extremism could return if the Great Alliance {of RJD , Congress and left parties} vote for power.
During the RJD government, we had a series of massacres, land grabbing incidents, and widespread violence. When the Nitish Kumar government came to power, we started a plan in January 2006 called ‘Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar’ (your government at your doorstep), which aimed at the comprehensive development of the Naxal-affected areas in Jehanabad . Development work was undertaken and these areas were adopted. Dalits and EBCs (economically backward classes) whose shoulders were fired by the naxals and used as cannon fodder received reserve in Panchayats; this helped them to join mainstream politics. Gradually, with the development of the areas affected by Naxal, the problems faced by the people were addressed. But we know that the RJD believes in the bloodbath policy and may want to revive that.
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