Nitish Kumar: The man with a magic wan

17 May 2009, 0150 hrs IST, Bharti Jain, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: When Nitish Kumar took over as the chief minister of Bihar four years ago, he had the unenviable task of putting the state back on  development track. But his immediate mission was to rescue Bihar from the politics of lampoonery and theatrics that had become synonymous with the state. The administrations based purely on a certain caste calculus that was lording over from Patna had earned the state widespread ridicule. Its economicindices had begun bordering on the shameful, law and order situation was collapsing, and the hapless Biharis migrating elsewhere to eke out a living was being hounded out by far right organisations. Worse, his predecessor Lalu Prasad had even started glorifying the backwardness of the common Bihari.  Nitish, an engineering graduate, who braved the odds to make it to the top league in politics, is a study in contrast. Voted to power by a powerful combination of extremely backward classes and minorities, Nitish was seen as a man with a magic wand. And the man began in right earnest.  Investment flow into Bihar from 2000 to 2005 was a paltry Rs 26 crore. But in three years starting November 2005, that figure touched Rs 1,000 crore, signalling the new-found confidence by investors in Bihar’s potential. The JD(U)-BJP government also added to the human capital by putting recruitment, especially of teachers and police personnel, on the fast track. And, crucially, crime rates started falling, down to barely one-third of the levels recorded in 2005.  And then in 2008, tragedy struck as the Kosi river flooded out. Here too Nitish managed to score by personally leading the rescue and relief work. With little central help to fall back upon, the state battled the calamity almost single- handedly. The politically astute chief minister has never missed an opportunity to take up the cause of Bihari migrants making a living in other states. His popularity with the minorities has only grown despite his alliance with the BJP, largely thanks to his successful efforts to keep Narendra Modi out of Bihar. And Polls 2009 have vindicated that confidence. Nitish’s steady relationship with the BJP too has stood the test of time. While the BJD-BJP alliance fell through just ahead of Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Orissa, JD(U) remained firmly with the BJP and fought the parliamentary poll together.  When Congress leaders started serenading him in an attempt to add to the UPA’s numbers, Nitish made it clear that his party was backing LK Advani as prime minister. And when finally Nitish had to share a stage with Modi in Punjab, Manmohan Singh questioned his “secular” credentials. But a calm Nitish retorted that he did not need a certificate from “vice-chancellor Singh of the University of Secularism”. source: ET