दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

Since I reached Patna I wanted to go to the Kumbhrar site- the Patliputra of Ashoka that I had seen briefly some 15 years ago. When I expressed my wish to my host Janardan Sharma, he informed that the place was very near to his house in Kankarbagh. But finally we could make it only on April 23, while returning from Nalanda. I wish I would have not gone there. We bought the entry ticket. Yamuna was tired. We made her sit on a bench in the park. I frantically searched for the hall with many pillars that I had seen, but I failed to find that. I could see only some newly constructed structure that appeared to me the foundation of a new house. As per information provided by the archeological department, it was Gupta-era ruins of Arogya Vihar (“hospital-monastery”) of the noted physician Dhanvantri. I never saw that last time.

What happened to that hall and the numerous pillars that formed the part of the palace? We came near the entrance and asked the person there. He informed that that the archeological department has buried the pillars with sand to protect it from the flooding during rainy season. What a shame! Is this the way to save and respect the remnants of a great civilization? Why couldn’t the department recreate the palace with those pillars?

The Chinese travelers have written vivid and extensive description of Patliputra of the time. Patliputra is a historic city and is not like mythological Ayodhya. It was Patliputra where Chanakya (Kautilya) and Patanjali lived, and wherefrom Chandragupta Maurya and the Ashoka, the Great established the empire covering most of India of today for the first time. Why couldn’t the archeological department do serious work to excavate and protect whatever was discovered about the great city of Patliputra? Is that because of the Buddha’s curse?

The people of Bihar do neither protect nor respect their ancestors and their heritages that they leave behind. I was shocked. Surprisingly, the archeological department charges Rs 5 per Indian and Rs 100 per foreign visitor to see an ordinary park that is presently used by young boys and girls to pass their happy time.

Upendra Prasad, the brother-in-law of Janardan had informed me that the residences of the reputed Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar is also nearby and so are the residences of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jai Prakash Narayan, and Jagjivan Ram.

On April 24, when I went for my morning walk, I could reach the house of Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’. I had walked along the road on Rajendra Nagar overbridge towards Ashok Path. When I enquired some persons they told me about the statue of Dinkarji. I, for the first time, mistook it as one of some BSP leader because of its shabby colour combination. I was surprised that even though there was no nameplate or other sign, at least three to whom I enquired about Dinkar Bhawan could tell me the exact place. The people still remember Dinkarji. But neither the government nor the literary elites of Patna could do something to make the house presentable to the fans of the poet who was once called national poet. The house of the poet is in bad shape. Half of it is occupied by some doctor. Why can’t the government acquisition the whole of it and make it a memorial of Dinkarji?

I kept on enquiring and reached to the house of Jai Praksh Narayan too through a narrow lane of Kadam Kuaon. While I was standing in front of the Jai Prakash Narayan house enquiring about it, a student of the school nearby came running to show me the entrance. He had heard me enquiring about it. I felt happy that younger generation of Bihar and perhaps ‘aam adami’ remembers the great sons of Bihar, but the politicians are busy talking big about themselves only. The people are to keep on hearing that and clap too. Recent claim of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav that the ’70s total revolution against Indira Gandhi government was in fact his brain child that he ‘handed over’ to the Loknayak, is one example of the meanness of the present politicians. Can even a beginner of the political history of India believe such a false claim?

I entered in the house. In some slum like structures in Pravavati- Jai Prakash Smiriti Sanshthan, some families live. One elderly lady helped me to get one of the employees of the Sanshthan with whom I could enquire about one Jagdish Singh who was a personal assistant to JP for many years. J. Singh had visited us too with his adopted daughter who was married SK Singh, one of my subordinates at Hindustan Motors. I have some books presented to JP by the writers that came to me through SK Singh.

I could get some information about the houses of others too: The houses of Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Jagjivan Ram had been sold out, and there is nothing there. I heard abut the poorly maintained Sadakat Asharam and the samadhi of Dr Rajendra Prasad in Patna. His fault was that he decided to move to Patna to live in Sadakat Ashram instead of asking for a government residance in New Delhi.

Perhaps one of the main reasons for apathy towards the great sons of Bihar is the caste-based bias in everything that has taken deep root over the years in Bihar. During my stay in Patna, I came to know of a function to celebrate Babu Kuer Singh’s role in India’s first Independence movement of 1857 being organized, led, and also attended by mostly Rajputs. I can never think that Kuer Singh belongs to only Rajputs, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and JP Narayan to Kayastha, Babu Jagjivan Ram to Chamars, and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar to Bhumihar Brahmins. But I experienced it happening in Patna.

How can Bihar even dream of getting developed with such narrow a thinking in the elite class of the state? Bihar and its people must respect its great sons without any bias of the caste in which they were born. There must be an effort to protect the memories of those sons through well-kept memorials and museums in the houses they occupied.

I was in Bihar for almost five days. We entered Bihar on April 20 and left on April 24, 2007. The reports in local newspapers were full with news and happenings that confirms the arrival of a resurging Bihar. I could feel the change.

On April 20, the newspapers carried the news of the government embarking on a mammoth project to interlink the major rivers within Bihar to address the dual problems of flood and draught. If executed, the project will increase Bihar’s assured irrigation coverage potential by over 2 million hectares, an increase of huge 80%. The projects are already identified. Consulting firms are short-listed. Ganga water will get transferred to South Bihar; Kosi water to Mahananda basin; Burhi Gandak, Baya and Gandak waters to the existing Gandak Canal System; and Sone basin water to Punpun-Harobar-Kiul basin through barrages, pumps, and canals.

I couldn’t understand if this river interlinking project will get the financial support from the center or it is only the state initiated one. The UPA government has not shown any enthusiasm in river interlinking projects just because it was initiated by the former NDA government, even though the judiciary asked for a timeframe. Only President Kalam have been talking about it regularly. Bihar government must also go in big way in renovation of existing ones and construction of water bodies in thousands in north Bihar to store flood water using NREG programme. Finance Minister Chidambaram has been talking about water bodies since UPA’s first budget.

News from many fronts are equally exciting. Patna- Gaya railway track is getting doubled, and Patna-Gaya section of NH-83 is getting six-laned under NHDP-III. While Gaya airport is getting upgraded, a Buddha Memorial Park is going to come up on 26 acres of old jail campus close to Patna Junction.

More than 2000 villages in 7 districts of Bihar have achieved universal enrolment of children with appointment of over 1,20,000 teachers, construction of about 1,00,000 new class rooms, and opening of 15,000 new schools. Projects such as Sankalp supported by UNICEF and Pratham are making thee focused education happen. Through extensive community mobilization,3,70,000 children out of 5,50,000 identified ones were enrolled.

I wish Bihar abolishes Bihar boards for secondary, higher secondary, and technical education and switch over to CBSE and hands over inspection to NGOs such as Pratham and Premji Foundation.

The Religious Trust Board under the leadership of Acharya Kishore Kunal are going to construct five major hospitals and one medical college in Bihar. With an innovative funding, the 80-crore medical college cum hospital will come up at Begusarai. The project additionally includes a terminal care center in Hazipur, a Vatsalya (child and maternity) hospital in Sitamarhi, a heart hospital in Muzaffarpur and a general hospital in Gaya.

Nearly 40 villages in Bihar will have a cultural center, roads and healthcare facilities to commemorate the long ties of Bihar with Mauritius.

On April 23, 2007 Patna saw ‘Who’s who’ of India Inc came to Patna promising to assist Bihar in getting back its past glory. Twelve groups have been formed to come out (name of the head of the group in bracket) with their ideas on harnessing agriculture (Anand Mahindra, M&M), easing credit flows (KV Kamath, ICICI), urban design for emerging Bihar (Hafeez Contractor, reputed architect of Mumbai), harnessing private sector (Kumar Mangalam Birla, Aditya Birla group), empowering through IT (S. Ramadorai, TCS), meeting energy concerns (Sanjiv Goenka, CESC), new heath paradigm(Analjit Singh, Max Hospitals), skill multiplier (Tarun Das, CII), alleviating poverty and keeping growth engines going (B. Muthuraman, Tata Steel), building Bihar brand (Shobhana Bharatia, Hindustan Times), mainstreaming the rural economy (Sunil Bharati, Airtel), and importance of tourism, travel and employment (Priya Paul, Park Hotel group).

Nitish Kumar sought their assistance in three ways: at individual level, by persuading their friends to whom they have better reach, and fine tuning of policies.

Are these not the indicators of resurging Bihar? If not what else can be the indicators?

Unfortunately, the national newspapers that I get in Noida or available on web hardly cover the news from Bihar or for that matter any other state. All these are interesting readings.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of Nitish Kumar or NK Singh, but I doubt if the Bihar ministry has sufficient number of enthusiastic and missionary ministers and bureaucrats to support the projects that can take Bihar ahead with speed of implementation fast enough to make up the lost years of stagnations.

I do also wish that opposition must play a mature role. Let Laluji and his brothers-in-law restrain themselves in creating bad news every other day. Let Raghubans Prasadji use his doctoral arguments to get Bharat Nirman implemented in at least the constituencies of RJD MPs and legislators.

We entered Bihar through the prestigious Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) from Varanasi on April 19. However, between Karamnasa and Sasaram, some stretches are still not complete. The bypass Sasaram is still not ready, though we would not have used it. Internal roads in Sasaram remain as bad as it used to be. Can’t Nitish Kumar’s government do something out of the box to improve its condition? Sasaram, being an old town deserving a heritage status, could have attracted a lot of tourists. But basically, nothing has come up during these years to make the stay in Sasaram possible, neither some hotels nor any eating houses.

The rural roads as I mentioned in my earlier entry are under construction and perhaps are being given priority and rightly so, as there live the majority of the vote banks. Early morning on April 20, we started for Patna by road. The road from Sasaram to Bikramgunj is horrible. In many places, it is not even good enough for bullock carts. I couldn’t understand if it is because of so many rice mills that has come up all along this rice bowl of the state. Some innovative entrepreneurs could come up with new enterprises based on the byproducts of the agricultural outputs of the area that is fertile for all sorts of vegetables and cereals such as rice and wheat. A railway track has been laid between Sasaram and Bikramgunj that will connect Arrah on the main line in time. It reminded me of the private light railways of the yester years that used to connect Sasaram to Arrah. In my childhood I had used the same many times. Many a times, my grandfather had accompanied me.

From Bikramgunj, our vehicle followed the road through Dawath upto ‘Malia-ka-Bag’. While traveling on the road, I got a nostalgic feeling. It was the road that I traveled many times since my early childhood. My maternal village Bodarhi is just half a kilometer west off Dawath. We built a new house here when I was working in HM. My parents were living here- my mother since my childhood and my father joined her when my maternal grandfather died. But after the death of my mother, we found it difficult to manage the landed property effectively. The neighbours and so-called relatives were just rogues. It was impossible to live under that condition of fear and tension.

After Malia-Ka-Bag, the driver turned towards Jagdishpur of Kuer Singh, the hero of 1857 war of freedom to reach Arrah. Surprisingly, the road is in much better. It is only when we were nearing Arrah, we found the road surface deteriorated requiring repair. It is a part of national highway joining GQ at Mohania.

The taxi-operators don’t take the old straight road between Bikramgunj and Arrah as it may be more time taking because of its poor surface condition. Otherwise that would have been a shorter route to Patna.

The driver was not very friendly, though the owner was known to my cousin, Surendra and perhaps his neighbour. We had started at 5.30 AM for this five and a half hours drive, and didn’t get even the morning tea that early. He finally stopped only at a place after we crossed Arrah. And there was hardly anything at the stall, but a cup of tea. Perhaps for security reason, the vehicle crawled slowly through the Danapur cantonment area. We had visited Danapur twice when Ashok, my cousin was here in Railways before moving to Vadodara.

To take story of Nitish Kumar’s roads in Bihar, we traveled to Nalanda, Rajgrih, Pawapuri going through a short route from Phatua. But that road up to Biharsarif was in bad shape for the most of the stretch and is getting widened. The driver could realize his mistake late. So we decided to return via Bakhatiarpur. The road is in excellent shape.

But the route followed gave me chance passing through Noorsarai, a small town near Biharsarif, where I had spent some 15 days working with Peace Mission volunteers in December 1966. I was deputed by Jai Prakash Narayan’s Bihar Draught Relief Programme of the year when Bihar faced an unprecedant draught. I had volunteered to work for him, while I was on my annual holidays in Bodarhi. My wife was expecting Rakesh. She remained with my mother at Bodarhi.

While at Noorsarai in that cold December of 1966, we had to sleep on the benches of a primary school of the village. We used to take the food at the road side stalls. It was unpalatable, but there was no way out. After the 10-12 days of working with those foreigners on re-boring of dried wells, I fell ill. I got unique assistance from the sarpanch, headmaster, and the doctor of the village (trio). Dr. Sinha was a Bengali living in the village and practicing. It proved that I was not fit for the hard way of living that is required for the type of life one is to live if one wishes to do something for the society.

We drove past the high school where the trio organized a dinner for us. I remember that dinner vividly that was laid on the huge conference table made out of finely finished mosaic concrete surface. They had arranged many courses- veg and nonveg with many types of drinks. I didn’t know how they managed that. It was beyond my imagination in those days.

With whomsoever I talked during my five nights stay in Bihar, it was a 100% positive response regarding the Nitish Kumar’s honest effort in bringing Bihar back in lime light with work on road and rural electrification all around the state.