Abandon Ship!

Bhagwane ki kripa hai jo Bihar chal raha hai (Bihar runs on the mercy of god)", admitted Laloo Prasad Yadav recently, half in jest, while visiting the residence of the murdered rjd leader Parmeshwar Yadav at Muzaffarpur. Thankfully, say his detractors tongue in cheek, the reality comes from the horse's mouth.

Though the state has for the last couple of decades symbolised the end of order, nothing has been more apocalyptic than its bifurcation into Bihar and Jharkhand. The key question now is whether it is going to slip further into the abyss, as is widely predicted. That seems the case. In the seven months since the bifurcation, more and more public and private institutions have declared their decision to quit the state.

In fact, there seems to be a competition to leave Patna, preferably for Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, or even Calcutta. In May this year, one of the world's largest international relief and development agencies, care, packed its bags for Ranchi. Besides abandoning the much-highlighted Anganwadi scheme, aimed at promoting literacy in Bihar under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the state is likely to lose huge quantities of relief material it has been receiving from care since 1967.

The United Bank of India has also announced its decision to shift its regional office from Patna. ongc has already downed its shutters in Bihar. sail too is going to restrict its operations in the state. Major coal organisations like Central Collieries and Bharat Coking Coal too have shown withdrawal symptoms: as their entire operational areas fall in Jharkhand, they see no point in maintaining offices in Bihar.

There's more bad news for the state: tisco has declared its intention to close its Patna office and shift to Ranchi. They have also decided to downsize their sales unit here. The British Library, one of the finest institutions running in the state for the last four decades, too has announced its decision to close down citing "low usage of the library" as the reason for the closure. A cabinet minister said the decision was in order as the "library is owned by the British and is the last vestige of colonial power in the state"! In the '70s, usis had shut shop after 10,000 of its books were not returned.

But why this tearing hurry now? Private companies and multinational corporations say they are too apprehensive to operate in Bihar. As most of their work is based on awarding franchises to local operators, the awardees are more often than not henchmen of local politicians and goons, mainly from the ruling rjd. Recently, the senior executive of a multinational dealing in chocolates was threatened by a ruling party legislator when he refused to give the agency to his sidekick. The firm immediately dropped the idea of opening its regional office in Patna. Similarly, a Calcutta-based leather company was threatened and abused by a ruling party MP to give the franchise to his man.

"Earlier it was mainly the local traders, businessmen and private companies who were deserting the state for poor governance, worsening law and order as well as the adverse environment but now even the public organisations want out," says leader of the Opposition Sushil Kumar Modi.

According to a Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries report, more than 10,000 traders and businessmen have fled from the state during the last decade fearing for their life and ever-growing extortion demands. The report mentions several of them being killed and kidnapped for not meeting such demands. Traders have no place to go except to the gangs themselves, as the police is brazenly hand-in-glove. Trading companies, industrial houses and private individuals have to constantly operate under the shadow of the gun.

Crime data collected by the police HQ between 1996 and 2001 indicate that three women are raped every day in Bihar despite being ruled by a woman chief minister (837 rape cases have been reported in 2000 alone); eight persons are kidnapped every day and 10 murders are recorded daily in the state. The number of road robberies has also shown an almost 25 per cent increase from 1996. An internal cbi report points out that the crime figures in Bihar do not represent the reality as lodging a first information report is an uphill task here.

It's no surprise then to encounter entrenched cynicism. "Which institution or individual would dare to do business in Bihar? There is no way out except fleeing the state," says a prominent businessman, who is ready to settle down in Surat. A sign of changing times, particularly when you consider that Bihar was judged the "best-administered" state in the early '50s. But that was nearly 50 years ago.