After the Toppers’ Scam of 2016, the death of hundreds of people in a matter of few days due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) as well as the scorching heatwave have exposed the deplorable conditions of education and health in Bihar.

Until a few years ago, however, the media was showering praise on the Nitish Kumar government for bringing about revolutionary changes in these two sectors.&nbsp;

Today the same media is questioning the Bihar chief minister. Forget the Opposition, even ally and BJP MLC, Sachchidanand Rai, is openly criticising the Nitish government and his own party ministers for letting the state down on all fronts.

But is it that hundreds of people have died only this year due to AES in Bihar, or that the Toppers’ Scam was confined only to 2016?

The truth is that hundreds of children have been dying almost every year since Nitish Kumar took over on November 24, 2005. Similarly, totally undeserving students had been topping in the Class-X and XII exams of the state board on an annual basis.&nbsp;

In the early years of the Nitish regime, the media had innumerable stories of how the chief minister got bicycles distributed to schoolchildren and how many school buildings had been constructed across the state. What they failed to expose is the way the Nitish government recruited millions of virtually ‘illiterate’ para-teachers, who were not qualified to become teachers in the first place. &nbsp;

That things were no better in Bihar before Nitish took over is well-known, yet there is no denying that the conditions have gone from being bad to worse.&nbsp;

Though the number of students enrolled in schools has gone up, it has also led to the multi-crore Double Enrollment Scam. Hundreds of crores were siphoned off as students got enrolled in two kind of schools—in private for good education and in the government schools to get cycles, uniforms and books!

While Nitish Kumar would repeatedly boast as to how the number of students clearing high school exams of the state boards with flying colours have increased, the truth is that the number of students who would crack engineering, medical and other competitive exams, especially civil services, have declined over the years.&nbsp;

As far as the situation in the health sector is concerned, it has witnessed a sharp fall. Yet, the media was more than eager to pat the state government on the back for its non-achievements. An impression was sought to be created that the new establishment has done enormous work to improve the condition of primary health centres (PHCs). In reality, the change in these PHCs have more to do with the central government’s National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and little with the state government. Even funds meant for the payment of doctors and paramedics as well as medicine and maintenance of these centres were allotted by the Union health ministry. But with a highly supportive media in tow, Nitish walked away with all the credit.&nbsp;

A decade later, the condition of these PHCs is simply hellish. That is why thousands of patients from around half-a-dozen districts are pouring into the Muzaffarpur-based Shri Krishna Medical College Hospital.

Similarly, Nitish was applauded for building rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, national highways and the East-West Corridor when the fact is that they were built by the Centre.

True, the condition of state highways and district roads had improved in the initial years, but things are back to square one now. The entire state machinery was bound to collapse as it was getting credit for work, which it had barely done. Ever since the cancellation of dinner for the BJP bigwigs in Patna on June 12, 2010, Nitish has made so many U-turns that the bureaucracy does not know what will happen next. A sort of paralysis has gripped the state.

Today, the chief minister cannot blame anyone as the government at the Centre is also of his ally, the NDA. But Bihar today would have been a much better place had the media played the role of a vigilant watchdog in the past. 
 
&nbsp;

(This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the <a href="https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-nitish-no-more-the-able-administrator-he-once-was-2764307">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)&nbsp;

After the Toppers’ Scam of 2016, the death of hundreds of people in a matter of few days due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) as well as the scorching heatwave have exposed the deplorable conditions of education and health in Bihar.

After the Toppers’ Scam of 2016, the death of hundreds of people in a matter of few days due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) as well as the scorching heatwave have exposed the deplorable conditions of education and health in Bihar. Until a few years ago, however, the media was showering praise on the Nitish Kumar government for bringing about revolutionary changes in these two sectors. Today the same media is questioning the Bihar chief minister. Forget the Opposition, even ally and BJP MLC, Sachchidanand Rai, is openly criticising the Nitish government and his own party ministers for letting the state down on all fronts. But is it that hundreds of people have died only this year due to AES in Bihar, or that the Toppers’ Scam was confined only to 2016? The truth is that hundreds of children have been dying almost every year since Nitish Kumar took over on November 24, 2005. Similarly, totally undeserving students had been topping in the Class-X and XII exams of the state board on an annual basis. In the early years of the Nitish regime, the media had innumerable stories of how the chief minister got bicycles distributed to schoolchildren and how many school buildings had been constructed across the state. What they failed to expose is the way the Nitish government recruited millions of virtually ‘illiterate’ para-teachers, who were not qualified to become teachers in the first place. That things were no better in Bihar before Nitish took over is well-known, yet there is no denying that the conditions have gone from being bad to worse. Though the number of students enrolled in schools has gone up, it has also led to the multi-crore Double Enrollment Scam. Hundreds of crores were siphoned off as students got enrolled in two kind of schools—in private for good education and in the government schools to get cycles, uniforms and books! While Nitish Kumar would repeatedly boast as to how the number of students clearing high school exams of the state boards with flying colours have increased, the truth is that the number of students who would crack engineering, medical and other competitive exams, especially civil services, have declined over the years. As far as the situation in the health sector is concerned, it has witnessed a sharp fall. Yet, the media was more than eager to pat the state government on the back for its non-achievements. An impression was sought to be created that the new establishment has done enormous work to improve the condition of primary health centres (PHCs). In reality, the change in these PHCs have more to do with the central government’s National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and little with the state government. Even funds meant for the payment of doctors and paramedics as well as medicine and maintenance of these centres were allotted by the Union health ministry. But with a highly supportive media in tow, Nitish walked away with all the credit. A decade later, the condition of these PHCs is simply hellish. That is why thousands of patients from around half-a-dozen districts are pouring into the Muzaffarpur-based Shri Krishna Medical College Hospital. Similarly, Nitish was applauded for building rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, national highways and the East-West Corridor when the fact is that they were built by the Centre. True, the condition of state highways and district roads had improved in the initial years, but things are back to square one now. The entire state machinery was bound to collapse as it was getting credit for work, which it had barely done. Ever since the cancellation of dinner for the BJP bigwigs in Patna on June 12, 2010, Nitish has made so many U-turns that the bureaucracy does not know what will happen next. A sort of paralysis has gripped the state. Today, the chief minister cannot blame anyone as the government at the Centre is also of his ally, the NDA. But Bihar today would have been a much better place had the media played the role of a vigilant watchdog in the past. (This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Nitish Kumar, no more the able administrator he once was

The humiliating defeat of Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai in Bihar by a margin of over 4.22 lakh votes, along with the complete shift of Left votes to the BJP in Bengal and the virtual wipeout of Communists in Kerala, indicate how off-the-mark our secular-liberal activists are. &nbsp;

That Kanhaiya was never in the race in his constituency was a foregone conclusion. As was the imminent wipeout of the Left in Bengal and Kerala - except in the eyes of a section of Delhi-based public opinion makers and intellectuals.&nbsp;

The Facebook warriors sitting outside the state or even the country pushed a section of people to believe that Kanhaiya was the great Left hope. They wasted their energy in Begusarai, never realising that their support-base in neighbouring Bengal was shifting to the BJP. They did little to prevent this huge shift.&nbsp;

While some of them were busy spreading a false narrative about the Communists hold in Begusarai, the truth is that the last time the CPI won a Lok Sabha election from this constituency on its own strength was way back in 1967. In 1996, its candidate won, but that victory was largely possible because the CPI contested in alliance with Lalu Prasad, then in power.&nbsp;

When Leningrad in Russia has been renamed as St Petersburg and the Left completely decimated in Bengal and Tripura, liberal thinkers would have us believe that there actually exists a town named after Lenin in Bihar!&nbsp;

Reputed writers and columnists, obviously with no idea of Begusarai, went on to expostulate that the CPI candidate got 1.93 lakh votes in 2014 election! That was a fantastic discovery. The truth was that the CPI then contested the election in alliance with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). Under the formula, the CPI contested fromBegusarai and Banka and JD (U) in the rest of the 38 seats. So the overwhelming 1.93 lakh votes polled were for Nitish Kumar and not the CPI alone.

The CPI and CPM, the two main Communist parties, do not have a single MLA in the Bihar assembly. The CPI (ML) has three. The RJD left one seat, Ara, for it.

In the 2015 Bihar assembly election, in which Nitish, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress fought jointly, the Left did not find any place in the Grand Alliance.&nbsp;

Even in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar, who had deserted the BJP a year before and was badly in need of an ally, chose to give only two seats to the CPI. The latter agreed willingly.

In contrast, the CPI, as early as December last year, demanded six seats to be a part of the Grand Alliance. They did so despite knowing that there are five other parties in this coalition.&nbsp;

After the May 23 results, those who voted dedicatedly for Kanhaiya, found themselves cheated when they learnt that the entire Left vote in neighbouring Bengal had shifted to the BJP.&nbsp;

In Begusarai itself, there were many stories of CPI card-holders working whole-heartedly for Kanhaiya, who finally ended up voting for Giriraj. Many of those who shifted their loyalty at the final moment was from Kanhaiya’s own caste, Bhumihars. The huge margin of defeat is only confirmation of this fact.

A premier English daily had during the election campaign, quoted a young supporter of Kanhaiya as saying that they want him to win from Begusarai and prime minister Narendra Modi from rest of the country so that they can witness a good debate in Parliament. What weird logic!&nbsp;

The whole Kanhaiya campaign was self-contradictory. Take the case of the statement of well-known lyricist Javed Akhtar, who went on to ask the voters, especially Muslims of Begusarai, to vote for Giriraj and not RJD’s Tanvir Hasan if they did not want to vote for the CPI candidate.

The strangest part of the Kanhaiya campaign was that none of these liberals deemed it fit to address any public meeting for any Grand Alliance candidate in Bihar, although they always claimed that they were spearheading the campaign against the saffron party.&nbsp;

They did not think it fit to come to Ara were the CPI (ML), also a Left party, was fighting with the support of the grand alliance.&nbsp;

(This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the <a href="https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-kanhaiya-kumar-and-the-left-liberal-wonderland-2754357">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)&nbsp;

The humiliating defeat of Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai in Bihar by a margin of over 4.22 lakh votes, along with the complete shift of Left votes to the BJP in Bengal and the virtual wipeout of Communists in Kerala, indicate how off-the-mark our secular-liberal activists are.

The humiliating defeat of Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai in Bihar by a margin of over 4.22 lakh votes, along with the complete shift of Left votes to the BJP in Bengal and the virtual wipeout of Communists in Kerala, indicate how off-the-mark our secular-liberal activists are. That Kanhaiya was never in the race in his constituency was a foregone conclusion. As was the imminent wipeout of the Left in Bengal and Kerala - except in the eyes of a section of Delhi-based public opinion makers and intellectuals. The Facebook warriors sitting outside the state or even the country pushed a section of people to believe that Kanhaiya was the great Left hope. They wasted their energy in Begusarai, never realising that their support-base in neighbouring Bengal was shifting to the BJP. They did little to prevent this huge shift. While some of them were busy spreading a false narrative about the Communists hold in Begusarai, the truth is that the last time the CPI won a Lok Sabha election from this constituency on its own strength was way back in 1967. In 1996, its candidate won, but that victory was largely possible because the CPI contested in alliance with Lalu Prasad, then in power. When Leningrad in Russia has been renamed as St Petersburg and the Left completely decimated in Bengal and Tripura, liberal thinkers would have us believe that there actually exists a town named after Lenin in Bihar! Reputed writers and columnists, obviously with no idea of Begusarai, went on to expostulate that the CPI candidate got 1.93 lakh votes in 2014 election! That was a fantastic discovery. The truth was that the CPI then contested the election in alliance with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). Under the formula, the CPI contested fromBegusarai and Banka and JD (U) in the rest of the 38 seats. So the overwhelming 1.93 lakh votes polled were for Nitish Kumar and not the CPI alone. The CPI and CPM, the two main Communist parties, do not have a single MLA in the Bihar assembly. The CPI (ML) has three. The RJD left one seat, Ara, for it. In the 2015 Bihar assembly election, in which Nitish, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress fought jointly, the Left did not find any place in the Grand Alliance. Even in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar, who had deserted the BJP a year before and was badly in need of an ally, chose to give only two seats to the CPI. The latter agreed willingly. In contrast, the CPI, as early as December last year, demanded six seats to be a part of the Grand Alliance. They did so despite knowing that there are five other parties in this coalition. After the May 23 results, those who voted dedicatedly for Kanhaiya, found themselves cheated when they learnt that the entire Left vote in neighbouring Bengal had shifted to the BJP. In Begusarai itself, there were many stories of CPI card-holders working whole-heartedly for Kanhaiya, who finally ended up voting for Giriraj. Many of those who shifted their loyalty at the final moment was from Kanhaiya’s own caste, Bhumihars. The huge margin of defeat is only confirmation of this fact. A premier English daily had during the election campaign, quoted a young supporter of Kanhaiya as saying that they want him to win from Begusarai and prime minister Narendra Modi from rest of the country so that they can witness a good debate in Parliament. What weird logic! The whole Kanhaiya campaign was self-contradictory. Take the case of the statement of well-known lyricist Javed Akhtar, who went on to ask the voters, especially Muslims of Begusarai, to vote for Giriraj and not RJD’s Tanvir Hasan if they did not want to vote for the CPI candidate. The strangest part of the Kanhaiya campaign was that none of these liberals deemed it fit to address any public meeting for any Grand Alliance candidate in Bihar, although they always claimed that they were spearheading the campaign against the saffron party. They did not think it fit to come to Ara were the CPI (ML), also a Left party, was fighting with the support of the grand alliance. (This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Kanhaiya Kumar's humiliating defeat indicates how off-the-mark liberal activists are

Though the 2019 Lok Sabha election may go down in history as a different kind of electoral battle, there is no denying the fact that the Communist movement is facing a crisis of existence, almost a century after its birth in India.

Be it in Kerala or Bengal, and to a certain extent, Tripura and Begusarai, it may lose at the hands of secular parties and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is certainly time for introspection for the mainstream Communist movement in India.

Interestingly, the Left has bounced back in Nepal, where they came to power 16 months ago, or in Mexico, where they won an election last summer. These developments took place more than a quarter century after the collapse of the Reds in Russia. In the same way, China is mostly Communist in name, while post-Castro Cuba is a different country now.

The Indian Communists may have their own political compulsions in Kerala where they are in power and the only force strong enough to take on the Congress. The saffron party has a relatively small base in that state. But in Bengal, there was some possibility of an alliance between the Left and Congress as they had contested the last Assembly election together, yet no such seat-sharing arrangement could be worked out this time. 
 
Notwithstanding the failure of an alliance with secular parties, people, in general, recognise contributions of the Left in fighting political opponents — be it Congress in the past, or the BJP now.

Perhaps they are missing personalities like Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Indrajit Gupta, Jyoti Basu and Somnath Chatterjee. Today there is a general feeling among the non-Communist secular parties that the Left is not following the line of Sitaram Yechury, but of Prakash Karat, the present general secretary of the CPM.

It was in Kerala that the first ever elected Communist government in the world came to power in 1957, when EMS Namboodiripad became the chief minister of the state. If things continue to go the way they are, Pinarayi Vijayan may end up becoming the last elected Chief Minister from the Left!

They have not only lost power in Bengal and Tripura, but have also become more or less politically irrelevant in these two states.

Incidentally, Kanhaiya Kumar the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union — perhaps by default — has brought a glimmer of hope for the Communist movement. But he is too young and too new to the electoral battle of such a complex constituency as Begusarai, from where he has been fielded. That is why several Left-leaning activists have questioned the wisdom of the CPI to expose him to the rough and tumble of polls so early in his career. They are now asking as to why the Communists failed to build an alliance in Bengal and Begusarai — even if there was no scope for it in Kerala.

The Communists cannot put all the blame on the Congress in Bengal or the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. From the very beginning, they started making unrealistic demands regarding sharing of seats in Bihar and Bengal. For example, the CPI demanded six Lok Sabha seats from the ‘Grand Alliance’ without any presence in the Bihar Assembly. 
 
The big question is even if Kanhaiya wins from Begusarai, how many seats will the Communists win in the rest of the country?

If the Communists end up winning just a handful of seats, Kanhaiya would not be in a position to wage the so-called war against communalism alone. It seems that the hard-line ideological position is taking its toll on the Communist movement in India.

Strangely, even the bitterest rivals of Communists have never questioned their political commitment and honesty of their leaders. Even in Bengal, where they ruled for 34 years, nobody charged them with corruption, though they have repeatedly been blamed for violence and political arm-twisting.

If the Indian Left is really in the lurch, they themselves are to blame. They perhaps failed to read the writing on the wall. 
 
(This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the <a href="https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-left-s-unrealistic-poll-demands-scuttled-alliances-2744403">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)&nbsp;

Though the 2019 Lok Sabha election may go down in history as a different kind of electoral battle, there is no denying the fact that the Communist movement is facing a crisis of existence, almost a century after its birth in India.

Though the 2019 Lok Sabha election may go down in history as a different kind of electoral battle, there is no denying the fact that the Communist movement is facing a crisis of existence, almost a century after its birth in India. Be it in Kerala or Bengal, and to a certain extent, Tripura and Begusarai, it may lose at the hands of secular parties and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is certainly time for introspection for the mainstream Communist movement in India. Interestingly, the Left has bounced back in Nepal, where they came to power 16 months ago, or in Mexico, where they won an election last summer. These developments took place more than a quarter century after the collapse of the Reds in Russia. In the same way, China is mostly Communist in name, while post-Castro Cuba is a different country now. The Indian Communists may have their own political compulsions in Kerala where they are in power and the only force strong enough to take on the Congress. The saffron party has a relatively small base in that state. But in Bengal, there was some possibility of an alliance between the Left and Congress as they had contested the last Assembly election together, yet no such seat-sharing arrangement could be worked out this time. Notwithstanding the failure of an alliance with secular parties, people, in general, recognise contributions of the Left in fighting political opponents — be it Congress in the past, or the BJP now. Perhaps they are missing personalities like Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Indrajit Gupta, Jyoti Basu and Somnath Chatterjee. Today there is a general feeling among the non-Communist secular parties that the Left is not following the line of Sitaram Yechury, but of Prakash Karat, the present general secretary of the CPM. It was in Kerala that the first ever elected Communist government in the world came to power in 1957, when EMS Namboodiripad became the chief minister of the state. If things continue to go the way they are, Pinarayi Vijayan may end up becoming the last elected Chief Minister from the Left! They have not only lost power in Bengal and Tripura, but have also become more or less politically irrelevant in these two states. Incidentally, Kanhaiya Kumar the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union — perhaps by default — has brought a glimmer of hope for the Communist movement. But he is too young and too new to the electoral battle of such a complex constituency as Begusarai, from where he has been fielded. That is why several Left-leaning activists have questioned the wisdom of the CPI to expose him to the rough and tumble of polls so early in his career. They are now asking as to why the Communists failed to build an alliance in Bengal and Begusarai — even if there was no scope for it in Kerala. The Communists cannot put all the blame on the Congress in Bengal or the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. From the very beginning, they started making unrealistic demands regarding sharing of seats in Bihar and Bengal. For example, the CPI demanded six Lok Sabha seats from the ‘Grand Alliance’ without any presence in the Bihar Assembly. The big question is even if Kanhaiya wins from Begusarai, how many seats will the Communists win in the rest of the country? If the Communists end up winning just a handful of seats, Kanhaiya would not be in a position to wage the so-called war against communalism alone. It seems that the hard-line ideological position is taking its toll on the Communist movement in India. Strangely, even the bitterest rivals of Communists have never questioned their political commitment and honesty of their leaders. Even in Bengal, where they ruled for 34 years, nobody charged them with corruption, though they have repeatedly been blamed for violence and political arm-twisting. If the Indian Left is really in the lurch, they themselves are to blame. They perhaps failed to read the writing on the wall. (This article was originally published on The DNA. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

2019 Lok Sabha polls: Left’s unrealistic poll demands scuttled alliances

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Zee News Rajasthan

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Soroor Ahmed

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