I am Banke Bihari, from FBI

I am Banke Bihari, from the FBI. I was named after Lord Krishna. Banke = bent and Bihari or Vihari= dweller, named after the pose of Krishna bent in his body while playing flute. I am deeply attached to Bihar where I was born. I am not investigating who murdered Bihar. I am just a chronicler of sorts and an informal historian.

I take you back to some hundreds of years ago, 300 BCE when Chanakya flourished as the counsellor to the great Mauryan emperor Chandragupta and later to Ashoka. The Mauryan empire was possibly the biggest of all Indian empires. Chanakya wrote the Arth Shastra the treatise on governance. Like all other empires the Mauryan dynasty too ended. Thus, began the decay of what is now the modern Bihar.

I would like to inform that Mahatma Gandhi began the first of his civil disobedience movement from Champaran, Bihar. Later Jayaprakash Narayan took part in the Quit India movement in 1942. Post- independence JP as he was fondly known once again came into prominence during the emergency period.

After JP I can’t think of any famous men or women from my beloved land. Bihar of today has been described as one of the bimaru (ailing) states, placed at the bottom of development in India today.

It is not as if we lacked in resources. But corruption became the bread and butter of those who ruled the state right from politicians to government officers. We have the Ganges flowing through the state in a gush to become one with her lover, the Bay of Bengal. Ganges is just one of the 21 rivers that flow across the state. Koshi is notorious for the annual flooding it causes. But then should one blame the rivers?

If you ask me what do I think of the famous Lalu, I can only share one of the jokes abounds on him. Lalu was only told that if he could seek Japanese collaboration, he could turn Bihar into Japan in five years. To that he retorted if it was other way around, I would turn Japan into Bihar in one year. Jokes apart he was the only one who stopped the saffron rath yatra way back in 1992. Any way his misdeeds look like chicken feed compared to what others have done in recent memory. Now his son literally like the bright Sun is trying to stop the saffron juggernaut from running over Bihar.

If all goes well in the election should the people press the right button, they can get free vaccination for COVID as far as the promises goes. But one needs to remember that promises are not meant to be kept.  

Also, as if Steve is providing jobs in growing apple orchards all over the state that people have plenty of harvest of jobs in the state. Migration would become of the bygone era should we believe the politicians.

History tells us that Siddharta achieved enlightenment under the bodhi tree in Bihar, when will the rest of the Biharis achieve enlightenment I wonder.

The election field has become one of knots and crosses. People need to unravel the knots and cross out the backwardness. Many a migrant finds himself/herself caught between the devil and the deep sea. While the cities mercilessly threw them out, there is nothing for livelihoods in their own backyard and migrants are trotting back to live a life of rot.

Bihar today means feudal and casteist society; jungle raj of revenge killing; corruption, grinding poverty, where development is unheard of. As long as such a Bihar is there can India ever become anything other than a ‘forever aspiring’ Vishwaguru.

You may wonder why is the FBI, the famous American investigative agency interested in Bihar development. I must offer an explanation. FBI stands for Friends of Bihar Initiative, a start-up in Bangalore, an idea initiative to turn around Bihar ‘whenever’ that will be.