Barb War In Bihar

It is free-for-all in Bihar. Ahead of the assembly poll results on November 10, barbs and innuendos, mostly below the belt, are being thrown at rivals with impunity. The seemingly close contest between the NDA led by CM Nitish Kumar and the mahagathbandhan spearheaded by Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has had more lows than highs, with PM Narendra Modi setting the tone. “You have to remain alert against Jungleraj ke Yuvraj (prince of jungle raj). If they get an opportunity, they will take the state back to those dark days, when mothers would dissuade their children from going out by telling them a lakadsunghwa (Bihari slang for child-lifter) was on the prowl,” Modi told voters at his rallies in north Bihar, referring to Tejashwi and harking back to the RJD regime of his parents, Laloo Prasad and Rabri Devi, when the Patna High Court had equated lawlessness in Bihar to ‘jungle raj’.

Tejashwi’s opponents have also lambasted him for talking about how the poor used to hold their heads high while walking past the Babusahabs (as Rajputs are known in Bihar) during Lalu’s rule. In fact, the Lalu administration has been the prime target of NDA ­leaders all through the campaign. The JD(U) has even set up a dedicated website, www.phulwariyatohotwar.com, tracing the RJD president’s ­journey from his birth at Phulwaria village in Gopalganj district to Hotwar jail, where he was sent after being ­convicted in multiple fodder scam cases. Neeraj Kumar, party spokesman and information and public relations minister, alleges crime and corruption are in the Lalu family’s political DNA. “That’s why the father (Lalu) is in jail, while the son (Tejashwi) is on bail,” he says, apparently referring to the ­corruption cases against them.

Nitish, too, has been warning voters against the ‘return of jungle raj’, referring to the reign of pati-patni (husband­-wife), a not-so-subtle reference to Lalu and Rabri Devi. He adds that the wife took over the reins when the husband got arrested (fodder scam, 1997), but women remained on the margins in Bihar. At one rally, Nitish allegedly mocked their family size without ­mentioning their names, while talking about his success in bringing down the fertility rate in the state. “People have eight-nine children. They have no faith in the daughters. After so many ­daughters, a son is born,” he said.

Widely believed to have been directed at Lalu, a father of nine, the remark evoked sharp response from Tejashwi. The 31-year-old RJD leader says Nitish not only insulted all women, but also hurt his mother’s ­sentiments. “By making such remarks against my family, the CM has targeted PM Modi, who has six siblings. He is like a guardian, but he is talking about everything except real issues like price rise, corruption and unemployment,” Tejashwi said.

Tejashwi and LJP president Chirag Paswan have also been ridiculed for their failed careers. “I don’t want to comment on them—one has come from cricket, the other from cinema,” says Nitish. Chirag’s rivals cite the failure of his debut Bollywood film Miley Naa Miley Hum (2011) to ridicule him on the campaign trail. “Look where Kangana Ranaut, who worked with him in his film, and also Bihar’s own Sushant Singh Rajput, who started out at around the same time, reached in their respective careers,” they say.