Mohan Guruswamy
February 26, 2004

The CPAS report "The Economic Strangulation of Bihar" has had interesting fallout. It was first published in The Hindu Businessline, South India's premier business daily. The reader's response was almost wholly in favor of the report, the main point of which was that consecutive Central Governments have been less than fair to Bihar in terms of financial assistance. Understandably, the response of those in and close to the Bihar Government and its ruling party was likewise. What was surprising however was the vitriolic reaction of the BJP's Sushil Modi, its leader in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Instead of responding to the facts, he has preferred invective making all kinds of vile and untruthful allegations. I do not propose to join the debate at that level. The matter of criminal defamation has been left to my lawyers to deal with.

Now let us look at why Sushil Modi doesn't like the report. The first point the report makes is that the per capita development expenditure is the lowest in Bihar, Rs.3206 as compared to the nationwide average of Rs.6748.50. The second point is that, and this is the big one, that the per capita allocation to Bihar in the Tenth Plan is a mere Rs.2533.80, which is puny when compared with what states like Gujarat (Rs.9289.10), Karnataka (Rs.8260), and Punjab (Rs.7681.20) got. What Bihar has been allocated is not even half the national average, which is Rs.5817.70.

What seems to have stung these two worthies is that this plan was formulated during the tenure of the NDA government and at a time when Bihar has a bakers dozen representation in the Central Government. There is a detailed public record of the antics of many of these ministers and it would seem that if they had cared a bit more for the people who put them in high offices and less on helping themselves and having a good time, this need not have been the case.

The report relates the low spending on vital development activity such as education, health, roads and irrigation to the low levels of assistance the state gets from the Centre. Now nowhere in its brief written part does the report endorse the management of the state by its present leadership. Yet the BJP's top Bihar leadership has taken it to be so. They have obviously done so to cover up for their ineffectiveness in New Delhi in putting forward the case of Bihar for more assistance.

On the other hand the BJP seems to have adopted the attitude that any assistance to Bihar somehow means assistance to Laloo Prasad Yadav. This is the same logic the Americans have when they continue with the economic boycott of Cuba, or when they preferred to see Iraqi children die of malnutrition and non-availability of medicines just to spite Saddam Hussein. This is indeed unfortunate and if Ravishankar Prasad, Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Vajpayee government, attached as much importance to Bihar's economy as he does to keep his filmi friends happy, maybe somebody high up in government in New Delhi would have noticed?

This flagellation of Bihar is not new. I have with me the India 1955 Reference Annual, a publication of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This book details all the activities of the Central and State Governments for the previous year and the immediate plan period. The lopsidedness of public spending in favor of some states was telling even half a century ago. This trend has obviously continued and the people of Bihar in particular have paid a severe price for it.

Just a single snapshot of spending on Power and Irrigation projects between 1951-56 will suffice. The Government of India spent Rs.25, 382 lakhs on major projects during this period and just Punjab's Bhakra Nangal and Harike works together got about Rs.7800 lakhs. The total irrigation benefit to Punjab was 57 lakh acres. The expenditure in Bihar was Rs.1, 682 lakhs and resulting in irrigation for 7.7 lakh acres. The old Madras state was given Rs.8432 lakhs, UP received Rs.3321 lakhs and the old Bombay state got Rs. 3312 lakhs. Notice how everything was counted in lakhs those days. Lakhs is what Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister for Civil Aviation, spends on a weekend of frolic in Goa!

Quite obviously the economic strangulation of Bihar began at the very beginning of the Republic. It's a pity that Ravishankar Prasad's ministry does not bring out such a reference book any more. Quite understandably perhaps, since it will tell us in embarrassing detail what his government has been up to?

That point has registered with his compatriot Sushil Modi who raises the question about what the Congress party did during its long innings in New Delhi? That is a question for the Congress party to answer, if it is in Bihar? But more relevant than that is what do the leaders who claimed to be working for Bihar during this period have to say? This includes Sushil Modi and his mentors in the BJP. I wrote pretty much the same study in 1985 and at least George Fernandes in the present government cannot deny not having read it, for he led the Janata Party's Kranti Yatra in Bihar and for which the study was written. Now Sushil Modi should ask the NDA convener as to why he didn't remedy things? All this is politically embarrassing so he abuses me! The question the people of Bihar should have for now is as to how did the BJP dominated NDA government allowed this trend to continue?

This is particularly relevant since some states did quite well for themselves during the NDA tenure. In just the past three years Andhra Pradesh got Rs.9790 crores as grants while Bihar got less than half that with Rs.4047 crores. AP received a further Rs. 3508 crores as "additional central assistance" while Bihar got a mere Rs.307 crores. Further AP got Rs.6902 crores as central loans while Bihar got just Rs.2850 crores. This is in addition to the Rs.46, 614 crores AP got for the Tenth Plan period when Bihar was required to make do with less than half that, just Rs.21, 000 crores. I think this is a high price for Bihar to pay just because Sushil Modi's party turned out to be no different from the Congress?

Quite clearly Sushil Modi has no answer to this. So he resorts to abuse to divert attention from the central issue that the Central Government has denied Bihar its rightful due. It has treated Bihar with scant respect and even less compassion. Worse for Sushil Modi, it was business as usual during the last five years. In a democracy this is the time for the record of those who enjoyed power to be made public. Unfortunately for the NDA, the record is as poor, if not worse than that of the predecessor Central Governments.

Now I will have Sushil Modi know that a copy of this report, "The Economic Strangulation of Bihar" was first sent to the President, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. They all acknowledged it. It was published in a leading newspaper and many from Bihar asked for the report by email.

Its only when I presented the report to the Chief Minister of Bihar that Modi went apoplectic with rage. This is understandable for at this moment the report suits the present Chief Minister and her party. But if and when Sushil Modi becomes Chief Minister of Bihar, as he has been aspiring for so long, he too will find the report useful. But right now he must lend voice to Laloo Prasad Yadav's demand that Bihar gets its due from Delhi.