Bihar under Lalu Prasad Yadav

In 1988, in the 9th General election to the Lok Sabha, the Janata Dal emerged as a serious challenge to the Indian National Congress party at the central level. The rise of Janata Dal also affected the state politics of Bihar which was long dominated by upper castes who were controlling the congress firmly in the state. The Janata Dal was composed of the three different wings which drew its strength from different classes of society. The first wing was under the leadership of Chandra Shekhar who had reach out to the other Socialists and also to one splinter group under Morarji Desai. The second faction was of some of the old congressmen like Arun Nehru and former Defence Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh. The third group drew its support from backward caste and middle peasantry who were led by Charan Singh. Though, Charan Singh was leader of this faction, the actual leadership emerged after his death under the new generation of politicians like Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was a product of student politics of the 1970s.[1]

Chief Ministry of Lalu Prasad Yadav
PartyJanata Dal (1990-1997)
Rashtriya Janata Dal (1997-Present)
SeatPatna
First term
1990–1995
 
Second term
1995–1997
 

Early life and politics

Lalu Prasad Yadav was born in Phulwaria in a landless cultivator family. They were at the lower end of feudal system and faced several restrictions. At the age of six years, he had to leave his village to live with his uncle who was a milkman at Bihar Veterinary College. Fortunately, he was admitted in school and later inducted into B.N college, Patna University from where he entered into student politics. Yadav was appointed as first OBC president of Patna University student union in 1967. In 1974, he was also appointed as head by Bihar student agitation committee and led the charge of protest against Congress led government in the Bihar Movement under the leadership of Jay Prakash Narayan. According to Seyed Hossein Zarhani, throughout his leadership period in Patna University, his image was of a popular backward caste leader who fought against upper caste dominance.[1]

In 1975, as an activist of the campaign against Indira Gandhi he was arrested and after the end of National Emergency he was elected as Member of Parliament in 1977 from Chhapra constituency on the ticket of Janata Party. In 1980 and 1989 state assembly elections, Lalu was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly from Sonepur. He was the successor of Karpoori Thakur as the leader of opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly who finally assumed the post of Chief Minister in 1990. Lalu's appointment as Chief Minister changed the socio-political profile of the state and in the coming years he emerged as undisputed leader in the Bihar who controlled the politics of the state earlier himself and later through his wife, Rabri Devi.[1]

Congress regime and anarchism

Jeffrey Witsoe, while examining the political theory of Ernesto Laclau, classifies Lalu's rule as a different form of "Populism". It was different from those of Garibi Hatao (poverty alleviation) drive of Indira Gandhi, because it was not directed towards meeting the demands of categories of people through the state machinery completely in the hands of elite. Lalu's theorization of "Populism" created a sharp divide between the people on the basis of their identity which was tied up with the Caste. Basically, his regime showed that how popular democracy could be leveraged as the "agent of change". The pre Lalu period under Congress rule saw the Caste as well as class conflicts in the agrarian society. The landless labourers primarily belonging to Scheduled Castes and some of them hailing from middle peasantry were in conflict with the landlords and upper backward caste led militias. The former were supported by the Communists, while the latter found support in state machinery which was dominated till then by the "elite" or the upper castes. The Congress regime in the state was unable to feel the heat of changes and growing discontent and thus lacked the vision to provide a safety valve to the entire system through conciliatory measures in the favour of revolutionaries. Instead of conciliation and mediation, the upper caste lobby within Congress reacted by siding with the landlords and forcibly repressing all the forces that challenged their dominance.[2] According to Witsoe:

"The people- the agent of popular sovereignty- was interpreted by the leaders of socialist and backward caste movement in the 'caste term'. The result was discursive division between " backward caste majority " and " forward caste system. The construction of this backward caste identity involved "a chain of equivalence " composed of individual caste identities in the late colonial period (Yadav, Koeri, Lohar etc) each of which was its own hagemonic project connected with specific caste networks and territorial interests, but which were tied together with the common aim of displacing a larger upper caste hagemony.[3]

"Casteism", which is often identified in Bihar with the rule of Yadav was not a consequence of Janata Dal's rule as the predecessors of Lalu also invoked caste consciousness in the society by promoting the social group from which they belonged. Jagannath Mishra, who assumed power after the fall of Abdul Gafoor was recorded to have patronised the Forward Castes and the Harijans in his government with 40% of the ministers in his cabinet hailing from Forward Castes. He cultivated a social coalition of Brahmins, Dalits and Muslim and checked the political ascedency of the backwards as noticed by Frankel. In fact, it was Mishra's rule in which crime and politics became inseparable and several contemporary observers notes that, "politics became a game of personal gains and loss." Though, he took populist measures like distribution of surplus land over ceiling laws to Scheduled Castes, his tenure is perceived as highly corrupt and repressive. Mishra also revoked the recommendation of Mungeri Lal commission's report which provided reservation for backward castes.[4]

In an interview with ThePrint, the former Chief Secretary of Bihar, VK Dubey admitted that the caste has always influenced the administration in Bihar right from the time of Shri Krishna Sinha when half of the Doctors in Bihar's medical colleges belonged to his own Bhumihar caste. The later Chief Ministers like KB Sahay also promoted officers of their own castes.[5]

Lalu followed the footsteps of his predecessors and Janta Dal under him indicated that it is the only party which is prepared to keep the backwards at the centre of the administration and after assuming power Lalu Yadav's government transferred 12 out of 13 Divisional Commissioners and 250 out of 324 Returning Officers in order to keep lower caste people at the helm of all affairs at the local level. Many OBC bureaucrats were brought to the main departments from the sidelines and were given key position such as the strategic posts of District Magistrates and Deputy Divisional Commissioners to the extent that they became at least equivalent to the upper-castes. Three years after Lalu assumed power, many upper-caste officials attained transfer to the Centre to avoid the alleged humiliation and ill-treatment they suffered in Bihar. The Panchayati Raj Bill and the Patna University and Bihar University amendment bill passed by state legislature in 1993 also paved the way for the entry of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs in the state services in bulk.[6] According to Christophe Jaffrelot:

Lalu Prasad Yadav has deliberately introduced a new style of politics, highlighting the rustic qualities of low castes of Bihar. For instance, he makes the point of speaking the Bhojpuri dialect or English with a strong Bhojpuri accent, to the horror of upper-classes. He was also adept at confronting them. One of his early slogans was, Bhurabal Hatao, (wipe out Bhumihar, Brahmin, Rajput and Lala (Kayasth) ). A few month after he became Chief Minister, he utilised his control of state media to describe the opposition to the Mandal as the conspiracy of the upper-castes.[6]

First tenure (1990-95)
Shri Lalu Prasad interacting with the students of M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, USA, in New Delhi .

In his regnal years, Lalu used to appeal to his mass followers i.e. backward castes, the Muslims and the Harijans in a very different way. As explained by Kalyani Shankar, Lalu compared himself as well as his followers, the backwards with the "crow" while the elites were compared to the peacock and the parrot. Lalu lambasted the elites, the upper caste and explained that, "only a crow could understand the language of crow" and the rule of Lalu Yadav is the rule of backwards. The backward caste had sensed the power of democracy as early as the 1970s, but with the arrival of Lalu Yadav as Chief Minister their bid to power was consolidated. In the past only three upper caste namely Rajput, Bhumihar and Brahmin controlled the resources as well as politics of the state but with the time the three upper backward castes viz. the Yadav, the Kurmi and the Koeri emerged as the main contenders of power. There was also a support to this new coalition from the Muslim who were disenchanted with Congress after the ghastly Bhagalpur massacre of 1989.[7]

The massacre which happened during the tenure of Satyendra Narayan Singh targeted mostly poor Muslims, belonging to weaver community and S.N Singh proved to be completely ineffective in dealing with the situation. The contemporary speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, Sadanand Singh quotes that there was a linkage between Shilanayas (foundation ceremony of Ram Temple) at Ayodhya and the riots of 1989, both of which resulted in weaning of Congress's outreach among Muslims. The roots of both the incidents lies in communal polarisation of the Bihari people by the proponents of Ram Temple movement. Another important change witnessed during this time was increasing number of contestants to Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha from the backward castes as a result of growing assertiveness among them which began during the movement of Jay Prakash Narayan in the 1970s but went on increasing and reached its peak during the 1990s.[7]

Though Muslim and Yadav formed the core supporters of Lalu, he made inroads into the votes of other backward castes through his decision to implement the Mandal Commission report after the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government at centre decided to bring it. The decision resulted in the polarisation of state into pro reservation backwards and anti reservation upper castes. Demonstrations, sectional strife, caste based riots surfaced in the state when Lalu emerged as the saviour of the backward castes. On the one hand he consolidated his base among backwards by taking pro-backward measures while on the other hand he started building his personality cult. Numerous books were written upon him and the writers were patronised by the state government. But by 1993, Lalu had to face agitations from numerous groups like students, teachers, government employees and also from various caste groups.[8]

In order to counter Lalu's hold over the backwards and to break his image as the sole leader of backward castes, numerous caste rallies were organised. These included Kushwaha rally in 1993 and Kurmi chetna rally, Dalit-Adivasi chetna rally in 1994. Most often these rallies were supported by anti-Lalu political parties, who were bidding to destabilise his government by creating a rift between the aspirational backward castes. Meanwhile, Lalu undertook foreign tours to attract investment in the Bihar in the wake of liberalisation. He also met Indian investors in Delhi and Bombay and hosted NRI conferences in order to revive the economy of the state.[8]

The issue of reservation, a form of positive discrimination for the socially and educationally backward communities was decades old. Under the Karpoori Thakur's government in Bihar in 1977, the attempt to enforce the quota in government jobs and educational institutions was made but Thakur's decision took a backseat when the forward caste members of his own cabinet opposed the proposals. The upper caste lobby surrounding Thakur advised the government to re-examine the issue on the basis of economic consideration as Ahirs, Kurmis and the Koeris, the upper strata of peasantry which had made significant economic progress till then. The hurdle created by upper caste led to polarisation of backward castes against the former. After the implementation of Mungeri Lal Commission's recommendations and implementation of reservation related provision, upper-caste youths staged large scale protest and violence occurred in various corners of state.[9]

The most notorious incident took place in Belchhi where landlords from the Kurmi caste brutally slaughtered 8 Harijans. The upper-caste and the Dalits, both became disenchanted with the government and Karpoori Thakur was voted out of power. This significant event happened due to alignment of upper caste and Dalit members of Bihar State Assembly together against the rising upper backward peasantry.[9]

Era of identity politics

Mathew and Moore classified the steps taken by Yadav after assuming power by the terminology "politics of state incapacity". The quota for Other Backward Class and Extremely Backward class was increased from the earlier ceiling. The violation of rules regarding reservation was made a punishable offence and the statutes were passed to reserve 50% of the seats in the senate and syndicate of the universities. Apart from this, selection of most of the Vice Chancellors and the directors of the higher educational institutions was made overwhelmingly from the OBCs. In case of a dearth of qualified people from the OBCs to assume the position, government chose to keep the position vacant rather than appointing a person belonging to upper caste to it. This step transformed the nature and composition of the educational institutions which were monopolised by the forward caste till then. The three percent quota for economically weaker section, irrespective of castes which could have benefitted poor from the upper caste was also abolished.[10]

Shri Lalu Prasad with the U.S. Financial Services Industry Study Group delegation led by Mr. David Blair when they called on him in New Delhi.

The cooperative sector in the state was also dominated by the minority upper caste since the independence. The government under Lalu passed several statutes to bring them under the firm control of government. The dismantling exercise was also performed for some of the Co-operatives but to the sharp contrast of this, Bihar State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Comfed) prospered. The primary membership of these milk Co-operatives was made up of the members of Yadav caste, who were traditionally herders and cattle rearers. Lalu Prasad also abolished the state tax on Toddy to the benefit of Pasi (caste) and proclaimed that the fisherman (Mallah) would have the right to fish from the river, earlier which depended upon the will of the village strongmen.[10]

The Charwaha Schools, established for the children of the cattle herders drew widespread criticism from the political circles, with some blaming it to be a mockery of elementary education and a hub of third rated primary education. In the latter half of the 1990s, when Lalu was facing charges for his implicit involvement in the Fodder Scam, he was successful in convincing his core electorate, the backwards that the "system", which is controlled by the upper castes is hatching a conspiracy to finish him. The stringent action by the Chief Election Commissioner, the threat by the Bharatiya Janata Party to impose President rule in the state were all linked together to be a part of bigger conspiracy against him.[10]

Lalu Prasad's governing style was a triumph of backward castes. The backwards or the OBCs were encouraged to assert themselves in the politics and in the local community relations often switching to violence, illegality and crime. The backwards were filled with new form of enthusiasm and the socio-political situation of the states could be explained by the political scientists in following words:[10]

In a sense, "Bihar had democratically elected non-governance".

-Subrata K. Mitra[10]

Democracy thrived but the governance collapsed.

-Walter Hauser[10]

Confrontation with upper-caste dominated bureaucracy

The tenure of Yadav also witnessed emergence of wide drift between the Dalits, the Scheduled Caste and the forward caste who were earlier aligned together against the rising upper backward peasantry in political circles. A newly founded, armed militia Ranvir Sena of the Bhumihar caste was the prime reason behind this drift. The Sena had perpetrated ghastly massacres of the Scheduled Castes including those in Laxmanpur Bathe, where nearly 50 Dalits including women and children were murdered. Such an incident gave mileage to Lalu's politics as his slogan, "Vikas nahi samman chahiy" (we need dignity not development) served as guiding light for these capital scarce, downtrodden communities.[11]

The retaliatory killings of the landlords by the Naxalites also took place but these killings were less frequent than past ones, due to weakening of the base of erstwhile Naxal groups. In the past, a lot of militants from the Koeri, Yadav and the Kurmi landed caste were also attracted to these armed groups. For instance, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation drew its support largely from Koeri and Yadav caste but after the foundation of Rashtriya Janata Dal, the successor of Lalu's Janata Dal, the Koeri and Yadav militants were attracted to it being enamoured by the electoral politics. Similarly, according to a report of Asian Development Research Institute the Kurmi caste used to held sway in People's War group while Yadavs were dominant in Maoist Communist Centre. The infatuation of these castes towards democratic politics left a leadership vacuum in the Naxal groups, which were now controlled from the top by leaders of upper castes while its local level workers belonged to Scheduled Castes.[11]

Meanwhile, the massacres perpetrated by Ranvir Sena and the support of some of the Samata Party leaders to lift ban from it polarised Dalits toward Lalu. It also exposed to them to the weaknesses of Left and they were left with the sole choice to accept the leadership of Yadavs who formed the base of Rashtriya Janata Dal. Lalu also relied upon 'symbolism', to prove himself as the real leader of the backwards. In contrast to former leaders of the Congress, who while visiting any village, used to visit only the upper-caste inhabited hamlets. Lalu sidelined upper castes and used to visit only those regions inhabited by the backward castes and the SCs. In response to occasional demands for roads and physical infrastructure, Lalu explained to the masses that development of infrastructure would benefit the contractors, the rich and the capitalists and for them "dignity" is the real panacea.[11]

A study done at the Jitwarpur village in the Araria district of Bihar explains the conception of "dignity" and what it meant for the lower castes. The 31% of the population of village belonged to Brahmin caste who exercised control over most of the orchards and productive land of the village. The upper OBCs were 5% and rest of the population was composed of the lower OBCs and the SCs. The Brahmin landlords prior to 1990 were also dominant politically. They used to exchange foul language and accused the lower castes working in their fields of being lazy and greedy. Sometimes, public humiliation and physical intimidation was also perpetrated against them but the lower castes were accustomed to it, as they depended for their livelihood on the lands of the Brahmins.[11]

By the 1990, during the times of Lalu, it was impossible in a normal situation for the Brahmins to win even a mukhia election from the region and political power locally was passed into the hands of Backwards. A member of Mallah took over the post of mukhia. It became very difficult for the Brahmin landlords to abuse their workers on face by now, further they were helpless to watch a Mallah Mukhia hoisting national flag on the occasion of Independence and Republic day. According to the villagers, once Yadav visited the village and told the crowd that:

Migrate to any part of country
wherever you find work
earn money
and when you come back dress well
and live with your heads held high. (Jeet-Jat se raho)

The visit of a Chief Minister to a SC hamlet was a surprising and unique experience for them.[11]

The bureaucracy which is termed as the "steel frame of the government" was drastically undermined during the Lalu's rule. Because of the dominance of upper caste in the bureaucracy, and the lack of backward caste officers to be appointed to the important offices, Lalu had to rely upon existing officers only who had ferocious attitudes towards him. Hence, steps were taken to centralise the power of bureaucracy and subject them to the rigid control of democratically elected backward caste leaders. Many a times, public humiliation of the officers also took place. One positive aspect of this step was the consolidation of self confidence of the poor and vulnerable who were harassed earlier by the officialdom in the situations involving "conflict with law". The political leaders were more easily approachable by the poor than the officials and were also close to them. Hence, the poor person coming from the lower caste benefitted from the de-elitization of administration as they could now approach their leaders to deal with the administration, which were still under the control of elite.[12]

It was reported that, many petitioners who visited chief minister for their pleas witnessed chief secretary of Bihar acting like a servant and serving the bowl for Yadav to spit Paan and Khaini which he was accustomed to.[2] There also used to be arrangement for spitting bowl wherever Yadav visited, not only for him but for other Paan loving leaders of his party.[13]

Surge in crime, criminal-politician nexus

Yadav's rule also resulted in marginalisation of upper caste in the high value organised criminal activities which were monopolised in the erstwhile governments by the criminals belonging to upper castes. During 1990–95, the backward caste gangsters primarily belonging to Yadav and Bind (a subcaste of Mallah) converted many areas of Bihar into their crime capitals. These organised crimes like Kidnapping, Timber logging, ransom killing and vehicle theft could thrive under political patronage, which was enjoyed by the upper castes during Congress's regime. But with the advent of Janata Dal the patronage shifted to backward caste criminals.[14] In most of the cases big merchants were the target and several incidents revealed the implicit involvement of the state machinery in the crime. In one of such incident which took place in 1995, India Today reported that the personal physician of Lalu Prasad was accosted by a gang of youths when he was driving to his workplace. He was thrown out and the criminals fled, taking away his car with them. When the physician approached Chief Minister's residence, he saw his car parked in front of it. To his surprise, one of the culprits was also sitting in the drawing room. On his complaint, Yadav allegedly advised him to pay the youths a sum of 50,000 to take back his car, which was followed by the physician.[15]

The litmus test for Lalu's government (1995 elections)
Nitish Kumar (centre) with Jyotiraditya Scindia (left) and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath (Right). Kumar was a member of Janata Dal of Lalu Yadav who broke away to form his own Samata Party which was supported by the middle peasant castes like Koeri and Kurmi.[16] The party was formed as a reaction to Yadav caste dominance in Janata Dal and sidelining of other significant backward castes.[17]

The 1995 elections in Bihar witnessed complete marginalisation of the forward castes from the political scenario of Bihar. Of the two chief rival fronts contesting in the elections viz. Janata Dal and its alliance and Samta Party, the former were led by Yadavs and the latter by the leaders of Koeri and Kurmi community under the leadership of Lalu's former partner, Nitish Kumar. The pre-election scenario was of confusion over alliance and partnership with the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party contesting individually while the Samata Party was aligned only to the CPI (ML). The Janata Dal under Lalu was aligned with its traditional partners like Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, CPI and CPM. The upper castes, whose marginalisation was owed to the poor support base of the Congress, were not able to decide their course as the other parties which enjoyed their support were not able to make any inroads among the voters.[18]

The election campaign of Janata Dal was primarily based on charging the Samta Party with the accusations of acting as a proxy for the upper castes in the name of attacking the casteist politics of Lalu Yadav. The result of the election surprised some, with Janata Dal getting 166 out of 324 seats in Bihar Legislative Assembly pushing the Congress to third position with 29 seats. The BJP was able to get 41 seats but it was still far from becoming a potential claimant of power in the state. It was gauged that in the name of development, nothing more could be done during Lalu's rule during 1990–95, except building of some houses under Indira Awas Yojna for the downtrodden communities like Musahars. However, still the numerically strong illiterate and downtrodden castes voted en masse for Janata Dal and Lalu as for the first time they voted independently. The Yadavs voted for Janata Dal as they wanted a firm control over power gained after years of long struggle while the Muslim voted for Lalu as they found a hero in him after the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani in Samastipur during his famous Ram Rath Yatra. By and large Lalu Prasad garnered support from the largest section of society.[18]

L.K Advani (left) with the former Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Mr. Lee Hsien Loong.

Emergence as the leader of plebeians

During his Chief Ministerial period, Yadav never tried to emulate the erstwhile elite chief ministers. He took part in the public festivals and popularised his famous Kurta Far Holi (cloth tearing holi). On this occasion his invitees and the media persons would reach his house shouting: Kaha Chhupal hai Lalu Sala (Where is the bloody Lalu hiding?). Yadav also responded in a similar abusive tone. The vulgar songs were also played on the occasion.[19] Besides this, he never hesitated in calling himself as a son of poor Goala (herder). During his public celebration of Holi festival, he used to play the Dhol himself and dance on the beat of Jogira song. Yadav's rallies were called railla, a symbol of masculinity. Those participating in these rallies were supposed to carry a lathi, a robust stick which was both the symbol of "masculinity" as well as the chief weapon of a "herder" who used it to manage his cows. The drinking of Bhang, a natural liquor and sitting the whole night to watch the Launda dance (Dance of a Eunuch acting as a woman) made him popular among rural Biharis but all of these obscene activities of a Chief Minister irritated the middle class sensibilities.[20] According to Ashwini Kumar:

An astute mix of lower caste with minority politics therefore helped Lalu Yadav to establish his hold over the political scenario in Bihar. This marked the beginning of, what came to be known as 'Total politics' in which the identity of caste, class and religion came to be manipulated and exploited by the new state elite to retain and remain in power forever. As opposed to the traditional Congress-centric secular politics, the new secular politics of Lalu Yadav was non Brahmanical, vernacular and popular.[21]

Forward-backward confrontation, from ballot to bullet
Pappu Yadav (left), the former associate of Lalu Yadav and a former Member of Parliament from the Madhepura. He was the leader of warring faction which was in gunfight with the gang of Anand Mohan Singh. Yadav was also allegedly involved in the murder of Ajit Sarkar,[22] a former Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly.

The anti-Mandal stir of 1990 provided Lalu another opportunity to strengthen the muscle power of the backward castes. Though the anti-Mandal, agitation was stirring up all over country, its impact on Bihar was most noteworthy, provided the history of caste wars in the Bihar over the issue of reservation. In central and north Bihar respectively, the Bhumihar and Rajput were leading the protest against quotas which were brewing the law and order problem in the state. Lalu aggressively enforced the quotas and polarised especially the strong groups among backwards. Over the issue of reservation, the criminal politician Anand Mohan Singh took anti-quota stand and formed his Samajwadi Krantikari Sena to crush the supporters of Mandal Commission's recommendations. Pappu Yadav, another criminal politician and a close associate of Lalu challenged the Singh's gang with his Mandal Sena.[23] Both militias confronted each other and exchanged bullets on occasions. The Yadav-Singh confrontation proved that the backwards couldn't be suppressed by the violence. Moreover, the anti mandal stir gave a rare opportunity to Lalu to hasten the process of marginalisation of the upper caste as he blamed upper caste dominated administration to be the real cause of the ills of the society and frequently removed upper caste officials and bureaucrats from important positions.[24]

Yet another gangwar born out of the forward-backward confrontation in Bihar was the Brij Bihari Prasad-Munna Shukla tussle. Prasad had been a powerful minister and a close to Lalu was leading a gunfight against the Chhotan Shukla gang. Both Chhotan Shukla and his brother Munna Shukla were leaders of budding Bihar People's Party of Anand Mohan Singh. Shukla belonged to Bhumihar community while Prasad was an upper OBC Bania. In December 1994, according to media reports, Chhotan Shukla was shot dead along with some of his followers. It was reported that, henchmen of Brij Bihari Prasad were allegedly involved in the assassination. After few days on the funeral procession of Shukla, which was joined by Anand Mohan Singh and his wife Lovely Anand, the angry mob allegedly killed Gopalganj District Magistrate, G. Krishnaiah when he was trying to control the furious mourners. According to the Outlook magazine, the Dalit background of Krishnaiah was the reason which triggered his assassination as he represented the metamorphosis of Bihari society under Lalu's rule, something which was unpleasant for the upper-castes.[25] In connection with this case, Anand Mohan Singh and his wife Lovely Anand were chargesheeted along with 38 others. A few days later, Brij Bihari Prasad was also assassinated by the unknown assailants at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences. Lalu Prasad was quick to set up a high powered committee for inquiring into the case.[26]

Lalu's proxy rule, Rabri Devi's tenure
Lalu Yadav in a rally with Rabri Devi and Subhash Prasad Yadav (centre), Subhash was one of the strongmen of Lalu who was allegedly running parallel government in some parts of Bihar.[27] He was brother-in-law of Lalu and one of the brotherS of Rabri Devi.

In 1997, Lalu was charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for his alleged involvement in Fodder Scam and the CBI realising Lalu's popularity and response of his supporters in the aftermath of his arrest asked for the help of Indian Army to arrest him. Lalu though claimed CBI of maligning his image, faced a serious diellema by this time. The conundrum lied in selection of his successor to the post of Chief Minister and eventually he decided to appoint his wife as the Chief Minister of Bihar. Many, including his own supporters thought that Rabri Devi, Lalu's wife wouldn't be able to survive the vote of confidence in the assembly for her bid to the most coveted office of Bihar but making every postulation lay waste, Rabri won the vote of confidence. Rabri instead survived an attempt to topple her government by the National Democratic Alliance government at the centre. The attempt to dislodge her government was triggered by an incident in Jehanabad in which 12 Dalits were killed by an upper-caste private militia. The Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged the opposition parties at centre and even the Congress under Sonia Gandhi to help enforce President's rule in the state as the state government of Bihar was not capable to control the law and order situation. But, due to Sonia's refusal to pay heed to his request and lack of majority with the NDA government in second house of Parliament, the resolution imposing president rule was revoked.[28]

Splits in Janata Dal and formation of Rashtriya Janata Dal

The Janata Dal had survived the splits in past when leaders like George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar defected to form Samata Party in 1994 but it remained a baseless party after the decision of Lalu to form Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1997. The second split took place prior to the Rabri Devi assuming power which resulted in Janata Dal having only two leader of any consequence in it, namely Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. Paswan was regarded as the rising leader of Dalits and had the credit of winning his elections with unprecedented margins. His popularity reached to the national level when he was awarded the post of Minister of Railways in the United Front government in 1996 and was subsequently made the leader of Lok Sabha. His outreach was witnessed in the western Uttar Pradesh too, when his followers organised an impressive rally at the behest of a newly floated organisation called Dalit Panthers.[29] Sharad Yadav was also a veteran socialist leader but without any massive support base. In 1998 Parliamentary elections, Samata Party and Janata Dal, which was in a much weaker position after formation of RJD ended up eating each other's vote base. This made Nitish Kumar merge both the parties to form Janata Dal (United).[30]

Former Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Shri Sharad Yadav delivering his inaugural speech at Regional Seminar on National Food Agencies " Challenges of the New Millennium" in New Delhi.
Ram Vilas Paswan as the Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel, addressing at "India Chem 2008" Industry meet in Mumbai on 10 June 2008.

In 1999, Lok Sabha elections Rashtriya Janata Dal received a setback at the hand of BJP+JD(U) combine. The new coalition emerged leading in 199 out of 324 assembly constituency and it was widely believed that in the forthcoming election to Bihar state assembly elections, the Lalu-Rabri rule will come to an end. The RJD had fought the election in an alliance with the Congress but the coalition didn't work making state leadership of Congress believe that the maligned image of Lalu Prasad after his name was drawn in the Fodder Scam had eroded his support base. Consequently, the Congress decided to fight the 2000 assembly elections alone. The RJD had to be satiated with the Communist parties as the coalition partners but the seat sharing conundrum in the camp of NDA made Nitish Kumar pull his Samta Party out of the Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan faction of the Janata Dal. Differences also arose between the BJP and Nitish Kumar as the later wanted to be projected as the Chief Minister of Bihar but the former was not in favour. Even Paswan also wanted to be a CM face. The Muslims and OBCs were too divided in their opinion. A section of Muslims, which included the poor communities like Pasmanda were of the view that Lalu only strengthened upper Muslims like Shaikh, Sayyid and Pathans and they were in search of new options.[31]

Lalu also alienated other dominant backward castes like Koeri and Kurmi since his projection as the saviour of Muslims. It is argued by Sanjay Kumar that the belief that, "the dominant OBCs like the twin caste of Koeri-Kurmi will ask for share in power if he (Lalu) seeks their support while the Muslims will remain satisfied with the protection during communal riots only" made Lalu neglect them. Moreover, the divisions in both the camps made the political atmosphere in the state a charged one in which many parties were fighting against each other with no visible frontiers. JD(U) and BJP were fighting against each other on some of the seats and so was the Samta Party. The result was a setback for the BJP, which in media campaigns was emerging with massive victory. RJD emerged as the single largest party and with the political maneuvere of Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi was sworn in as the Chief Minister again. The media largely failed to gauge the ground level polarisation in Bihar.[31] According to Sanjay Kumar:

there can be no doubt about one thing that the upper-caste media was always anti Lalu and it was either not aware of the ground level polarisation in the Bihar, or deliberately ignored it. If the election result did not appear as a setback for RJD, it was largely because of the bleak picture painted by the media. Against this background, RJD's defeat had appeared like a victory.[31]

Even after serving imprisonment in connection with the 1997 scam, Lalu seemed to relish his role as lower-caste jester. He argued that corruption charges against him and his family were the conspiracy of the upper caste bureaucracy and media elites threatened by the rise of peasant cultivator castes. In 2004, Lalu's RJD had outperformed other state based parties by winning 26 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. He was awarded with the post of Union Railway minister but the rising aspirations of the extremely backward castes unleashed by him resulted in JD(U) and BJP led coalition to defeat his party in 2005 Bihar Assembly elections. Consequently, Nitish Kumar a leader of OBC Kurmi caste was sworn in as the chief minister. During Lalu's time backward caste candidates came to dominate Bihar assembly claiming half of the seats in it and it was the aspiration of this powerful social community which led to fricton among the united backwards, leading to the rise of Nitish Kumar who made both social justice and development as his political theme.[32]

Assessment

Yadav's Janata Dal government was accused by some for fomenting caste based antagonism in the state as recalled by travel writer William Dalrymple in one of the speech he attended while visiting one of the election campaign. In the following speech Yadav was reported to have said:

Our fight is against the wearer of sacred thread. For years, the priest had made fortune looting peasants. Now i tell them they should learn to milk cattle and graze them, otherwise they will starve.[33]

The records however state that, the caste based antagonism, perpetration of violence and undignified teasing against the lower caste was more prevalent in the period preceding Lalu Yadav's rule. On the question of wage, the agricultural labourers often faced harassment at the hands of upper-caste landlords. The women belonging to Dalit and landless agricultural families were molested by the landlords and undignified teasing of these women like "pinching on breast" and implicating the male members of Dalit families in frivolous cases by Rajput landlords, when their women rejected their (landlord's) proposal of sexual contact was a common phenomenon.[34] Besides, the numerous caste armies that sprang around the hinterlands to avenge the killings of landlords by the Naxal groups (manned primarily by Dalits and Extremely Backward Castes) also brought apocalypse for the marginalised communities.[35]

The militias like Ranvir Sena, Kuer Sena and Sunlight Sena of Bhumihars and Rajputs were recorded as violators of human rights of poor Dalits. The pattern of abuse remained cleansing of the slums inhabited by the Harijans by brutally killing the men, raping their women with impunity and stripping and parading them naked.[35] Some of the brutal incidents also took place in 1997 when Yadav assumed power but in this scenario, the emboldened lower caste also retaliated violently. The upper-caste who remained the victims of retaliatory killings of the lower-caste blamed Yadav for their plight. One of the victim of Bara Massacre was reported to have stated that the power is in their hands now, why would their government protect them ? (an implicit indication towards the strengthening of muscle power of the Harijans under Yadav).[33] Earlier, a section of upper-backwards also operated private militias like Bhumi Sena, run by members of Kurmi caste and Lorik Sena run by Yadav caste but the activities of these caste armies were less brutal and they lost their significance with time. The Lorik Sena though run by Yadavs was later found to be a brainchild of some of the Bhumihar politicians to play Yadavs against Scheduled Castes.[36]

In one of the ghastly incident that took place at Laxmanpur Bathe, the witness recounted with horror the tragedy that she saw after Ranvir Sena members massacred Harijans. According to witnesses, everyone who died was shot in chest, five girls were raped and mutilated before being killed. The murdered girls had their panties ripped, their breast chopped off and were shot in the vagina.[37] In the period before Yadav's ascedency too the Rajput landlords were notorious for frequently raping the lower caste women in their strongholds of Bhojpur region. The individual heroic actions of the revolutionaries like Jagdish Mahto (who though not a Dalit but an ambedkarite fighting for the cause of Dalits) failed to create a long lasting impasse upon the activities of tyrant landlords.[38] But, with Yadav's ascedency, the lower caste were thrilled seeing the superior caste leaders submitting before him. It is evident from the discourse with the Musahar people in some part of Bihar that Janata Dal under Yadav had a silent support for their forcible acquisition of extra land in the possession of landlords which the landlords managed to retain even after Bihar's Zamindari abolition drive.[33]

Sinha describes the regime of Lalu-Rabri with the terminology Mai baap ka sarkar translated as the "Government of mother and father" which was characterised by the compassion towards the destitute and the discriminated section of society. The state in this regime didn't focus on the method of leveraging state machinery for the developmental plans but opened its treasury for distribution of free Saree, Dhoti and other essential items directly to the poor. This was a carry-over of ancient practices when kings donate to poor on special occasions, but the Mai baap sarkar also had a negative characteristic of corrupt subordinates in government offices enjoying immunity from the action of their seniors if they possess enough connection to made themselves heard to those sitting in government. This patronage was ended by subsequent Nitish regime who provided free hand to law enforcement agencies to take necessary action against the tainted.[39]

Maker of the background for Nitish's developmental politics

The post independence period though saw populist measures like Zamindari abolition and positive discrimination in the form of reservation for scheduled castes in order to bring the idea of inclusive development to the fore, but the upper-caste retained their socio-economic dominance by exploiting the loopholes in the existing legislation. The congress was backed for a long time by these upper-caste who still managed to dominate the block, bank and thana, the tripod of rural india which determines the hierarchy in the feudal society. The cultivation of association with these institutions was an important feature of dominance enjoyed by upper-caste in rural agrarian society. With the Mandal politics stirring up in the state and ascedency of OBC leaders like Lalu, the upper-caste lost their importance in state level politics. As ascertained through reports, the upper-caste made up 46% of the membership of Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1952, highly disproportionate to their actual population in state. With the rise of OBCs they were reduced to 23% in 2000 but again managed to represent 30% of the membership of assembly in 2010, when Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as a significant player in the state's politics in alliance with Nitish Kumar. It is reported that while Lalu's politics affected the twice-born castes at the upper level of state's administration and politics, the step taken by Nitish to extend the caste based quota to the local institutions and Panchayats marginalised them at the grassroot level. Earlier, due to their influence at grassroot level institutions, the upper-caste managed to make the lower castes vote to the parties and candidates of their choice. In the absence of this they depended totally upon the brokers i.e the lower caste people who manned these institutions for asserting themselves, making it a costly affair for the former.[40]

According to a report of ThePrint in 2018, it was ascertained that it was not the culpability of Lalu's rule that industrialisation was not set in Bihar but the failure of subsequent Chief Ministers since independence. Krishna Ballabh Sahay, Sri Krishna Sinha, Binodanand Jha and all other predecessors of Lalu failed to promote industrial development which could have benefitted the most rural state of India. The symbolic gestures like using the water supply of fire department for bathing the poor children, pitting a Musahar caste candidate, the lowest in caste hierarchy for parliamentary elections and naming the Bihar University upon Dalit icon Bhim Rao Ambedkar[33] popularised Lalu amongst the untouchables and poor meanwhile alienating the upper-caste bastion in the state who dominated bureaucracy and media. It is argued by Journalist Dilip Mandal that the upper-caste dominated media demonised him because of his robust stand on enforcement of quota for the lower castes but it didn't help in destroying his political strength in the state. In 2015 assembly elections RJD and Janata Dal (United) alliance humbled the Bharatiya Janata Party, latter succeded in winning only 53 seats in the 243 membered house of Bihar legislative assembly.[41] Even after initial success of Nitish Kumar government in bringing some of the Bihari expatriates to reinvest in the state following his apparent control on crime, the private sector investment in the state remained far from satisfaction taking a downturn due to host of factors which included uncooperative bureaucracy. John Albert Rorabacher in his Bihar and Mithila: The historical roots of backwardness writes :

The state has failed to attract private investors; although many Bihar expatriates at one time, began to reinvest in Bihar based on apparent elimination of street crimes and the rapid increase in infrastructural development projects. This temporary euphoria quickly faded as private investors were faced with non availability of land for industries, power shortages and a lackadaisical and uncooperative bureaucracy.[42]

In the period before Yadav's Janata Dal assumed power too, the industrial development was at precarious stage compared to the more developed states of India. According to reports, the share of manufacturing sector at current price was only 13.4% in state's Net Domestic Product in 1984-85.[43]

Colonial roots of underdevelopment in Bihar

Shaibal Gupta, the founder of 'Asian Development Research Institute' at Patna argues that the roots of underdevelopment of Bihar lies in colonial rule which introduced different system of land revenue extraction in different part of India. According to Gupta, while in south and western India they applied Ryotwari and Mahalwari system in which peasants had a greater say, in the Bihar and eastern India it was based on the system of feudal lords performing the task of land revenue collection besides police duties. This arrangement served as the major cause behind the loss of fortune in the agrarian economy. It was a consequence of this arrangement that the feudal lords who primarily belonged to upper-caste, came to dominate the administration in the post independence india and halted the all major land reform initiative like Bhoodan and land redistribution which could have ended the disparity in agrarian society. The arrival of Yadav's government resulted in weakening of bureaucracy and public administration which according to DM Diwakar, Professor at A.N Sinha Institute of Social Science (Patna), was due to upper-caste dominated bureaucracy remaining uncooperative to the elected representatives of masses. Yadav chose to weaken bureaucracy for this reason and the new recruitment were also halted in the cases where his government was not able to find suitable backward caste candidates for the vacant posts. For instance, Santosh Mathew, an officer of the Indian Adminstrative Service, and Mick Moore, a professor at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, who have analysed government recruitment data for 1996-’06 in a working paper titled “State Incapacity By Design: Understanding The Bihar Story” reveal that only 30,000 new primary school teachers were recruited against the 90,000 that were required in the government schools.[44]

On Yadavisation

Lalu Yadav's rule witnessed Yadav caste becoming assertive in the rural and urban landscape of Bihar, leading his opponents to coin the slogan of "Yadavisation" of Bihar's polity and administration. This fact was used by other political parties to dislodge his government on the charges of working for the benefit of a single caste group at the cost of various other backward communities. According to a report of Indian Human Development Survey (2011-12), Brahmins topped in average per capita income with Rs 28,093, the other upper castes of Bihar which comprises Rajputs have an average per capita income of Rs 20,655, closely followed by middle agrarian castes like Kushwahas and Kurmis earning Rs 18,811 and Rs 17,835 respectively as their average per capita income. In contrast, Yadavs’ income is one of the lowest among OBCs at Rs 12,314, which is slightly less than the rest of OBCs (Rs 12,617). Hence; despite the political mobilisation of backward castes in post mandal period, the upper-caste are still the highest income groups in Bihar. According to this report, the economic benefits of the Mandal politics could be seen as affecting only few backward castes of agrarian background leading to their upward mobilisation. The Yadavs hence transformed their assertiveness to the upward mobility in the politics only while the other backward castes gained momentum in the other fields, though still the upper-caste dominance was retained in upper echelon of bureaucracy.[45]

Complicated relationship with Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar displaced Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal from power in 2005 by forging alliance with the Right wing Bharatiya Janata Party, with massive support base among the privileged upper-caste and urban population, specially the trader class. In the subsequent years he consolidated his vote base by including many other deprived communities in the fold of this newly formed alliance, which included some of the caste groups placed at the lowest level in the caste hierarchy like Doms and Musahars. The support among them was sought by placing them into the category of Mahadalit which entailed seperate affirmative actions for their socio-economic advancements. The distribution of bicycles for school girls from poor families were other steps taken by him. Kumar sought the transfer of a portion of backward caste votes which was to be merged with BJP's vote base in order to make the alliance formidable one.[46] In the subsequent years, Kumar remained critical to the Yadav's politics and even accused his rule as Jungleraj (the era of misgovernance) while reminding his electorate of the same. It was reported that after assuming power in 2005, he let the law enforcement authorities loose on the petty criminals and also on those who were patronised during his predecessor's regime.[47]

There has been instances when Kumar engaged in the battle of words against Yadav family. In 2010, Rabri Devi reportedly called Kumar a "thief" and "dishonest" to which Kumar also responded by calling Yadav family, recalcitrants who have decided never to reform.[48]

Lalu Prasad Yadav during 2004-2009
  • The Union Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad entering the Parliament to present Railway budget (2004–05) in New Delhi .
  • President of Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhary Shujat Hussain with the Union Minister of Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad, in New Delhi on April 1, 2005.
  • Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad giving finishing touches to the Railway Budget 2005–06 in New Delhi on February 25, 2005.
  • Union Minister for Railways Shri Lalu Prasad inaugurating the Public-Private Partnership Convention on Indian Railways, in New Delhi on June 15, 2006.
  • Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad interacting with media persons after presentation of Railway Budget 2008–09, in New Delhi on February 26, 2008.
  • Union Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad inaugurates 97 Kilometer long newly converted broad gauge line form Bandikui -Bharatpur and flags off a train at Bandikui on August 27, 2004.
  • Shri Lalu Prasad presenting a medal at the Anniversary-cum-Investiture Parade of the Railway Protection Force, in New Delhi on November 22, 2006.
  • Lalu Prasad while inspecting Guard of Honour at the Anniversary-cum-Investiture Parade of the Railway Protection Force, in New Delhi on November 22, 2006.
  • Lalu Prasad accepts a special award ‘IT Transformation Award’, on behalf of Indian Railways for pioneering use of technology by the Indian Railways, from the President, NASSCOM, Shri Kiran Karnik.
  • Shri Lalu Prasad coming out from the polling booth after casting his vote in the Presidential election at Parliament House, in New Delhi on July 19, 2007.

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Further reading
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