The month of May has put the heat on the Nitish Kumar Government. The state’s ‘badland’ image, which he vowed to erase when he came to power, is back in the reckoning. And ‘merchandisers of crime’ who of late appeared to be on the run are back pursuing their business. National and vernacular dailies have gone to town screaming that Nitish’s tall claims of a ‘clean Bihar’ have suffered a setback.

Not that Bihar could claim to be crime-free as soon as the Nitish Government stepped in. But what was indeed perceptible was that the police were responding far more promptly whenever an incident of crime occurred. “Incidents of crime will take place. They happen everywhere. What is important is the response of the police and on that count there is no slackness,” he had said.

But the recent kidnapping of a schoolboy, Ankit, in Patna and before that the daylight killing of a contractor also in the state capital have caught the law and order apparatus napping. Particularly in the case of Ankit’s kidnapping, the police have so far been unable to trace the boy even though one of the accused is in custody and has confessed to have killed the six-year-old.

Unfortunately for the Chief Minister, all this has happened when he finds himself in the midst of a personal trauma. For more than a week now, he is in the national capital attending to his wife in hospital who is down with pneumonia.

Immediately after Nitish took over the reins of Bihar, he was fairly successful in generating a feel good factor. Gradually development agenda was seen to be taking over politics and crime for which the state had been known. Several events were organised to build Brand Bihar. Industry leaders and academicians dared to venture where few had earlier and saw a vision of Bihar blossoming. Proposals for investments in industry, education and tourism came from far and wide.

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