Why Bihar continues to be in eternal political turmoil?

@prashanthamine

New Delhi: From the land where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, for a land once known for its world-famous ancient Nalanda university, the continued present-day affairs in the state of Bihar begs just one question – why does Bihar continue to be in eternal political turmoil?

Despite being ruled by some of the formidable dynasties in ancient India like – the Magadha, Shunga, Gupta and the Pala’s, it is still a mystery as to why Bihar is still the badly governed state in India?

In the 1980’s it was categorised as an ‘BIMARU’ state (comprising Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). The states once had high fertility rates and endemic corruption.

In ancient times, Bihar was known for having the world’s first and finest ancient universities in India.

The world-famous Nalanda University was set up by King Shakraditya of the Gupta dynasty in the 5th century (almost 2,000 years old) near Rajgriha in Bihar.

Vikramshila University was founded by the Pala dynasty king Dharampala in 7th Century in Bhagalpur, Bihar.

Odantapuri University was set up by Pala king Gopala in 7th century CE in Magadha region of Bihar.

Somapura University was founded by Pala king Dharmapala in the 7th century.

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Subjects like Surgery, Astronomy, Commerce, Ayurveda, Warfare, Agriculture were taught at these Universities. Students from as far as Tibet, China, Persia, Greece and beyond came to study here.

Besides Vedic learning, Bihar was the seat of Mahayana branch of Buddhism. It is the land where Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment in Bodh Gaya.

Although today nobody refers to Bihar as a BIMARU state, in the last few decades the state has been in the limelight for misgovernance, corruption, lawlessness and backwardness.

But it is the political turmoil that the state of Bihar so intermittently finds itself in, appears to be one of the reasons as to why the state is found floundering.

Janata Dal (United) – JD-U leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has once again ditched his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and once again aligned with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to revive the Mahagathbandhan.

Both the BJP and the RJD have had a taste of Nitish Kumar’s political vacillations. The JD-U snapped its alliance with BJP in 2015 to align with the RJD. Nitish Kumar had severed his ties with the RJD in July 2017 and formed the government with the help of the BJP. This time again, he has ditched the BJP in favour of the RJD. Seven years later the JD-U is repeating its own history.

Between April 1998 to May 2004, during the tenure of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nitish Kumar served as a union minister for Surface Transport, Agriculture and Railways. It was around this time that he earned the sobriquet of ‘Sushashan Babu’, as a person who stood for clean governance.

The JD-U is already projecting Nitish Kumar as a prime ministerial candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This notwithstanding the many aspirants to the post in the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

This time around, Nitish Kumar and Tejaswi Yadav led RJD appear to have cobbled up an alliance with the outside support of the Congress and the Left parties to form the Mahagathbandhan.

The new equation for majority in the 243 member Bihar Legislative Assembly worked out by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Tejaswi Yadav appears to be somewhat like this – JD-U 45, Tejaswi Yadav led RJD 79, with outside support from – Congress 19, Left parties 16 and one Independent.

The Bihar 2020 Assembly election results were as follows: AIMIM 5, BSP 1, BJP 74,

CPI-M 2, CPI 2, CPI-ML-Liberation 12, Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular) 4, Independent 1, Congress 19, JD-U 43, Lok Jan Shakti Party 1, RJD 75 and Vikassheel Insaan Party 4.

Since the 2020 Bihar assembly elections 4 of the 5 AIMIM MLAs have since joined RJD taking the latter’s tally to 79.