Bihar has been a victim of the worst kind of stereotypes. Earlier, whenever there was a mention of the state, people reacted as if it existed in 18th century, a state that was extremely backward, a state that did not understand what development meant. So bad was the perception about Bihar, that Biharis outside the state often hid their identity. Bihar in those days always made news for the bad reasons: for carnage or for kidnappings.

But this degrading perception about the state has changed in the last few years. Biharis these days do not hide their identity.

How did this change come about? 

When we came to power in November 2005 I was asked by the media what my first priority was. I said governance. I was asked what my second priority was. I said governance. And what was my third priority? I said governance! There is a reason why I emphasised governance as my first, second and third priorities. Bihar that we inherited in 2005 was not afflicted by bad governance; it was afflicted by absence of governance.

Law and order
What is governance? Governance means establishing the writ of the state, the law of the land. There was a time when the capital city (Patna) would be deserted by 7 pm. If one did not return home by the evening, his or her family members would start worrying about their safety. Today this has changed. Shops are open till late evening. People are out on the streets without any fear.

How was the rule of law established? Criminals were caught, produced in court and then sentenced. Earlier, the government witnesses didn’t appear in the court. The prosecution, therefore, sought adjournments time and again. After we came to power we ensured that the prosecution witnesses were present in the court. As a result the trials were wrapped up in time and today we have a record number of convictions – 50,000. This is what I believe is governance. Governance means, anyone who commits a crime is caught and produced in the court of law. It is up to the courts to decide whether that person is guilty or not. 

Governance also means empowering women. After we came to power panchayat elections were round the corner. We repealed the old panchayati raj law and made a new one with 50 percent reservations for women. Initially there was scepticism, but soon people realised what a significant development it was. Women began to go out of their homes. The security environment began to change. Today women feel empowered.

But providing a place for them in the panchayats was not enough to empower the women. We decided to focus on girls’ education.  In order to encourage parents to send their daughters to upper primary schools, we decided to pay every girl who went to class VI Rs 700 for the school uniform, a pair of shoes and a school bag. This step alone doubled the number of girls going to the upper primary school. To help them reach the high school, we proposed to give every girl who went to class IX a cycle. In order to avoid what had the potential to become a “cycle scam”, we handed over Rs 2,000 in cash to each girl to buy a cycle. This has worked wonders. When we started the cycle scheme, there were 1,70,000 girls in class IX. In 2010, the number shot up to 4,90,000. I am sure no other scheme in the country has brought a change of this magnitude. What would you call this? This, according to me, is governance.

Initially, there were apprehensions about the safety of these girls. To ensure that they didn’t face any harassment from the roadside Romeos, we decided to train them in judo and karate for free. Today, the girls cycle to their schools and people on the road give them way without any girl having to demonstrate her martial art skills. Soon, we started giving cycles to boys too. Today the number of cycles with both girls and boys stands at 25,45,000.
When you address the basic needs of your people, you can see the results. When we came to power, the number of children out of school was a staggering 25 lakh. It has now come down to 7,70,000.

People had lost faith in the public health system. When we got a survey done on the number of patients visiting PHC (primary health centre) every month, it turned out to be a mere 39. We revamped the PHCs with new buildings and free medicines. We also ensured regular visits by the doctors.  Now the number of patients visiting a PHC has shot up to 4,000 a month. In case of routine immunisation, we have surpassed the national average of 54 percent.

What does governance means? It means human development. We focused on human development and made everyone a participant, including the mahadalits. I have often been criticised for focusing on the marginalised sections within the scheduled castes (SC).  Yes, there is indeed a marginalised section even within the SCs, we called them the mahadalits. My aim was to help them get the benefits that the SCs are entitled to. Tomes have been written on the mahadalits with no tangible benefits to them. My government, on the other hand, is helping them out of their miseries. They have now been made a part of the development process.

We also focused on infrastructure. Earlier the roads were in a pathetic condition. If you happened to visit the state, I am sure you would not have come back without breaking your back. Today I invite you to visit any part of the state. You will be surprised and wonder if it is the same state. I have set my goals on connecting Patna to the remotest parts of the state, say a village in Kishangunj, by a road that will take not more than six hours. And we will achieve this in a year or two.

Centre’s money or people’s money?
The centre’s allegations that the development in Bihar has been done through central funds is ridiculous. When Bihar suffered its worst tragedy during the Kosi floods, we did not get any money from the centre; it was the World Bank that came to our rescue. Even in 2007, there were floods in 22 districts affecting more than 2.5 crore people. We did not get any money for that as well. Then, again when we witnessed droughts last year and this year, the same story was repeated.

The division of resources between the centre and the states is done on the recommendation of the finance commission, and is not a favour from the centre. The central assistance, mentioned in the plan, is formula driven. One part of the gross budgetary support is given to the centre and the rest is distributed among various states.

Earlier, central ministries used to get 66 percent of the gross budgetary support and the states the remaining 34 percent. This year, the share of the central ministries has been increased to 77 percent. And, still they say that Bihar has developed because of the centre’s largesse. I would like to know if the centre has treated Bihar as a special case by giving it money from a scheme to which no other state has availed of. So much was the centre’s apathy towards the state that often we had to spend our own money, on several of the centre’s schemes. 

There were lots of potholes on various national highways in Bihar. The previous state government did not touch these saying they belonged to the government of India. We also had the option to continue this practice, but we didn’t do that. We asked the centre to give us money to repair those roads. The centre didn’t give us the money and we had them repaired from the state budget. We have invested more than Rs 1,000 crore in repairing around 1,600 km of national highways.

When the tsunami occurred, every victim got Rs 1 crore. When earthquakes occurred in Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, they also got grants from the centre. Recently there was cyclone Aila in West Bengal for which it got money from the centre. Moreover, when Mumbai had floods, it also got a grant. What is out fault? Why this discrimination with us? The prime minister declared Kosi as a national calamity. But he didn’t give us any money for rehabilitation of victims of the same national calamity.

Actually, this money does not belong to the state or the centre. This is the nation’s money. As Mahatma Gandhi said, we are trustees of this money rather than owners. People at the centre are trustees and so are the ones in Bihar.

The point I want to make is that by providing good governance, we are not doing any favour to the citizens of the country. We have been elected to serve the citizens and hence, we are accountable for what we do.

The makers of our constitution chose democracy and the federal structure for the country. Today, we are attacking this very structure. We believe that both the centre and the state should fulfill their respective responsibilities. At present, the country’s politics is in a phase where we cannot have a party ruling in all the states as well as the centre. Now, we have so many aspirations and hence, we cannot escape coalitions. There will be coalitions in society as well as the government and this is not a bad thing.

If we follow the coalition dharma with honesty, the government can surely function smoothly. I was a minister when there was a coalition at the centre and currently I am leading a coalition in Bihar. I believe that there is no harm in coalition and it is good for governance.

No return to dark ages
Bihar is full of possibilities. It has a glorious past. I see the young generation they have a strong feeling that the state which used to be infamous for various things will now just progress. People want to move ahead and join the race of development and progress. The state is never going to return to the dark ages. Bihar is looking ahead. There was a time when it was a centre of knowledge and power. It now wants to get back to those glorious days again.

[Edited excerpts from Nitish Kumar’s address at the Governance Forum on ‘Bihar on the Move’ in New Delhi on August 21]