BATTLE OVER POLITICAL TASTE AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN BIHAR POLITICS

23-JULY-ENG 8

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA----------------------------Bihar politics is swinging between two poles these days—on one hand there is the echo of the ‘half encounter’ in Ara, and on the other hand there is the aroma of ‘full mutton party’ in the Central Hall of the Assembly. The opposition has fiercely targeted the mutton feast organized by the ruling party in the holy month of Sawan, while the ruling party itself has come under the scanner over the alleged half-hearted police encounter in the Chandan Mishra murder case.

The ruling party termed Tejashwi Yadav’s reaction to the mutton feast as a “mutton war” and called it a purely political attack. Samrat Choudhary even said that Tejashwi’s agenda revolves around the Bangladeshi vote bank and he is unnecessarily engaged in giving a communal color to every initiative of the ruling party.

Here, the police action in Ara is being termed as a ‘half encounter’. The opposition alleges that the law and order situation is pathetic and the police is taking action only for show. Many ruling party MLAs have also started demanding control on drugs like brown sugar instead of the failure of liquor ban.

With the election year approaching in Bihar, the old debate of Nitish Kumar's 'good governance' and Lalu Yadav's 'jungle raj' has returned to the old political pitch once again. It is certain that instead of issues related to the public, political rhetoric, feasts and gun politics are going to heat up the election atmosphere in the coming days.

The question is whether Bihar's politics will ever be able to focus on policy issues, or will discussions like "half encounter vs full mutton" continue to determine the direction of public interest?