Bihar elections: NDA, Mahagathbandhan manifestos for an aspirational electorate

The rise of an electorate that wants more than caste empowerment is evident in the discourse

The NDA manifesto (“Sankalpa Patra”), released Friday, three days after the Mahagathbandhan’s “Bihar Ka Tejashwi Pran” (Bihar’s Tejashwi Resolve), confirms a trend that Hindustan Times pointed to earlier this week. After being in the grip of the Mandal paradigm for close to four decades, politics in Bihar appears to be transcending it to embrace a governance agenda, a kind of caste-plus politics, that suggests the rise of a caste neutral aspirational class. In this respect, the NDA and Mahagathbandhan manifestos have much in common. Both alliances recognise that employment is a big issue, and in a state deeply impacted by out-migration, that voters are no longer satisfied with caste empowerment but expect their politicians to create jobs at home and develop infrastructure available in other parts of India. That explains why the manifestos have much in common — and they go beyond promising welfare and full employment to building a new age economy.

If manifestos were horses, Bihar would ride to prosperity in the next five years. But who is to walk the distance between promises and implementation? (ANI)

For sure, neither alliance has ignored its core constituencies. Both acknowledge the presence of the woman vote bloc and have promised sops: NDA has promised to create ten million lakhpati didis; the Mahagathbandhan’s Mai-Bahin Maan Yojana envisages ₹2,500 a month to poor women and permanent jobs for women in self-help groups and contractual workers. Both manifestos address the extremely backward classes (EBCs), an electorally influential section known to back the NDA, and farmers. The Mahagathbandhan has also sought to widen its social base by promising to lift the 50% bar on reservation, and introduce a law on the lines of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for EBCs. Both alliances promise more jobs, but their pathways to that are different. The Mahagathbandhan has made an ambitious claim that it will provide a government job to every family within 20 days of coming to power, build IT parks, SEZs, dairy and agro-based industries, and an education city. The NDA, however, has refused to place the burden of job creation on the State and is focussed on private capital and entrepreneurship to provide them. Its “Sankalp Patra” talks about 10 new industrial parks and mega food parks, manufacturing units in every district, establishment of a defence corridor, semi-conductor manufacturing park, global capability centres, tech and fintech cities, and a network of 100 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) parks and 50,000 cottage industries to give a boost to “vocal for local”. Bihar, as per the manifesto, could become a textile and silk hub.

If manifestos were horses, Bihar would ride to prosperity in the next five years. But who is to walk the distance between promises and implementation? Maharashtra and Karnataka, where the NDA and Congress are respectively in office, offer sobering lessons. The winners in these states had promised welfare schemes for every conceivable section in society — women, farmers, youth, and so on. Now, they complain about the fiscal burden of their welfare schemes. Governments have sought to pare down the schemes and eliminate undeserving beneficiaries. It can be no different in Bihar, which is no Maharashtra or Karnataka in terms of revenue-generation potential. This newspaper, for instance, had pointed out that creating government jobs at the scale promised by the Mahagathbandhan was impossible. Still, it wouldn’t do to ignore the signs of hope and aspiration, increasingly evident in the political discourse and reflected in the manifestos. Bihar will see a turnaround, or at least the beginnings of one, even if some of the promises are met.