He's been in poll mode almost ever since hes been in power. The ongoing Vishwas Yatra is his fifth in four-and-a-half years. Nitish Kumar uses this latest yatra to showcase his governments record and to dole out new schemes in an election year. In the corridors of Patnas secretariat,awed stories do the rounds about how this Chief Minister puts in 8-10 hours in a sitting,parses the commas,looks at a 10-page document and spots mistake in line 13. On his yatra,he travels with the image of a chief minister immersed in detail. Nitish Kumar evidently revels in this. I hear every voice,howsoever distant,and then I reflect and take a decision. I am going away now to the district headquarters where I will spend several hours assessing the areas problems, he says as he takes leave of his audience at the village meeting in Jorgama,during the yatra in Madhepura. Later,in an interview to The Indian Express,he narrates an instance: In my last tour through the state,the Vikas Yatra,a disabled child came up to me. I was told that he didnt get the disability pension because he was under 18 years. I went back to Patna and changed the requirement. Now,all are entitled to it. Then,I was told that the disability certificate can only be issued by a civil surgeon. I changed that as well. Now it can be issued by the doctor at the primary health centre. Earlier,the collector would dole out the pension. Now,the SDO can do it. These are micro-level implementation issues for which I try and find a way out,he says. The Chief Minister is most at home surrounded by his team of bureaucrats,a number of whom he ferries with him to the district on his yatra to showcase on the dais when he makes his speeches. But the politician has sensed the clamour building from below. Across the poll-bound state,there is increasingly audible criticism of what many call afsar shahi,or the perceived rule of the bureaucrat in Nitishs Bihar. In his recent speeches,Nitish pointedly addresses allegations of increased corruption in the lower bureaucracy. Corrupt bureaucrats will not be spared,he says. He plays to the gallery in Madhepura: I ask my IAS officers,if you are so qualified,so intelligent,and youve come in through the UPSC,then how come a petty village thug can subvert your schemes? He has set up a trial system for public servants under the Bihar Special Courts Act,he tells the Express. This is through an amendment last year of the Prevention of Corruption Act. There will be designated courts with two provisions one,a time-bound trial,and two,if the government finds ill-gotten property,it can be confiscated by a designated authority. When these courts begin working in the next one year,there will be an impact, he says. But as elections draw closer,when faced with criticism of his government on most other counts,the much-awarded Chief Minister is surprisingly testy,and ill at ease. Two questions,or two criticisms,agitate Nitish Kumar especially. One,the suggestion that his government has been able to deliver in the state in part because he was better placed than his predecessor in terms of financial assistance from the Centre. Incidentally,this is the thrust of the anti-Nitish campaign being conducted by JD(U) dissidents and the Opposition in election year. It is finding echoes in Bihars streets,where it often translates into a hard-nosed questioning of the Nitish governments achievements vis-a-vis the role of Central largesse in Bihars recent development,especially in the building of roads. And two,the bataidari issue. On the first,the role of the Centre versus the state in Bihars development,Nitish counters: What does the Centre give us? Is there any Bihar-specific scheme? Bihars plan size has grown from about Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore,he says. But,of this,70 per cent is made up of our own resources and our borrowing; and only 30 per cent is plan assistance from the Centre which is formula-driven. Were not going to be grateful to the Centre for that! On the contrary,he claims that the Centre has withheld funds for relief for the Kosi-affected,and the state has had to pitch in its own funds to repair the national highways. The national highways are more visible,so if the Centre is tardy in sanctioning the money,I have to do it. Or else,what will everyone say? On the second issue of the bataidari fears spreading in the countryside among the upper castes,sparked off by a government-appointed commissions proposals on land reform,Nitish is unyielding. This is not an issue,this is a ghost. I will not discuss it, he says. His government has put the 2008 land reforms report,which advocates legal recognition of the tiller,on the backburner in the most time-tested way: it has set up a committee. But the political calculators are still out on whether or not Nitish had revived the sensitive subject of land reform by electoral design in the first place. When asked about another government-appointed commissions controversial renaming of 21 out of Bihars 22 Dalit groups as Mahadalit,leaving out only the Paswans,he contends: Does everyone keep track of Uttar Pradeshs Dalit castes in the same manner as they do in the case of Bihar? And on reports of increasing dissidence in the ruling party: It happens in every party. But in our case,it makes news even in states where the JD(U) does not exist. Stories abound in Patna,and outside it,of the Chief Ministers close monitoring and opponents allege,his close manipulation of his image in the media. There are loud murmurs of the growing government adspend being unabashedly used as leverage. Nitish denies charges of being overly sensitive to criticism. I take advantage of the information provided by the media. It is others who are on the phone (to newspapers) all day. I am not touchy. I am only involved in my work. If the government of the day is working,there is a provision for publicising it, he declares with vehemence. He is expansive once again as he spells out the biggest challenge in his four-and-a-half years as Chief Minister. When he came in,Bihars problem was not lack of governance or mis-governance,he says,but the absence of governance. There was a fear of doing. No one had any expectations from the state. Now,the peoples confidence is back. Now there is talk of growth rates, he says. (Concluded)
