***V. Krishna Ananth writes on rise and fall of Laloo Prasad Yadav in India***

***The Laloo era witnessed much social churning, pushing the traditional rulers -the land-owning Bhumihars and the Rajputs - to the margins. Yet, a lot was left to be desired.***

AFTER having controlled the political setup in Bihar for a decade. Mr.

Laloo Prasad Yadav seems to be having a tough time. Barring any success in post-poll manipulations and mustering support from among a section oi the NDA. Mr. Laloo Yadav may find it difficult to retain his hold over the State.

Oji the contrary, the NDA. even If its performance has been far below expectations, can "manage'' a majority In the manner in which the BJP did In Uttar Pradesh. Patna, in the next couple of days, could turn into a trading centre with both the RJD and the NDA leaders displaying their "ability" to surpass all hitherto-established standards of brazen political behaviour. As It appears, the NDA seems to have an edge insofar as the game of managing the numbers Is concerned.

Bihar could also witness a "churning" in the Congress(I) Legislature Parly on the Unes witnessed in Uttar Pradesh. And the Gangetlc plains looks like returning to the era where the upper castes hekbsway over all walks of life, particularly the political and adminlstra-

tive setup. This. In short. Is tlie message of the poll results that are now out.

It Is indeed true that the Laloo era witnessed much social churning, pushing the traditional rulers - the land-owning Bhumihars and the Rajputs - to the margins. Yet. a lot was left to be desired. For instance, the concept of land to the tiller was a far cry throughout these ten years. Social Justice was reduced by Mr. Laloo Yadav to a mere, slogan.

This was the period when the notorious Ranbir Sena, the private army of the land owning Bhumihars and the Rajputs, was born In Bhojpur (In 1993). At least 300 Dalits - all of them landless agricultural labour -were killed by Sena mercenaries. That the state machinery under Mr. Yadav failed to even apprehend the killers is a telltale comment on the reality that prevails in Bihar.

The only "crime" committed bv the poor men. women and children of Bilhaur, Batani Thola. Laksmanpur Bathe and other such villages was that they rallied behind the CPI (ML-Liberation), a party that was determined to root out the vestiges

of the feudal order.

It is true that Mr. Laloo Yadav ensured pickets of the Bihar Military Police in all these villages after the Ranbir Sena accomplished" its task of terrorising the Dalits. But there was nothing he would do to ensure that the Bhumihars and the Rajputs - who still consider It intra dig to till the soil and yet insist on owning the land - were alienated from large tracts of land. The fad that there was no way they could lawfully own such large (rads did not lead Mr. Laloo Yadav and his social justice brigade to effect meaningful land reforms. For them, social Justice began and stopped with "empowering" the intermediate castes (the Yadavs. Kurmls and Koeris). The Bhu-mlhar-RaJpul contractor lobby was replaced with Yadavs and other Intermediate castes.

A quick look al the socioeconomic changes that -Bihar witnessed before the Laloo era began would be pertinent. In the Seventies, the socialists and communists campaigned in their own way against the feudal socio-economic order, the outcome of which was the emergence of Karpoori Thakur as

Chief Minister in 1977 (when Laloo Yadav, in his late twenties. was just another of those young "boys" elected lo the Lok Sabha thanks to JPs insistence that 30 per cent among the Opposition candidates have to be from among the youth).

But the social churning initiated by the socialists in Bihar, based on the foundations laid by the powerful peasant movements that were carried out in North and Central Bihar under the leadership of Swami Saha* janand Saraswati (Mahatma Gandhi’s contemporary), forced the landlords to leave their lands behind with the tenants (belonging to the intermediate castes) and settle down" in Patna. Here they managed to obtain civil contracts and also manipulate the stale apparatus through their kith and kin who had by then entrenched themselves in the bureaucracy. Young boys, sons of rich landlords. were sent across to Delhi and other places for "better edu cation" and thus managed to corner a chunk of postings in the IAS and IPS and were able to return to Bihar and control the civil administration.

It was this Congress(I)-man-

aged balance that was disturbed by a decision of tlie Union Government on August 8. 1990 the implementation of the Ma dal Commission recommendations. And Mr. Laloo Yadav as Chief Minister would confer IAS and IPS on men belonging to the intermediate castes and ensure that they were placed alongside the direct recruits (mostly from the upper castes) so that the administrative setup was not reduced into "their" private fiefdoms.

Thus began the process by which the Bhumihars and Rajputs were edged out of the category called civil contractors. Now. you had to belong to Laloo's inner circle to obtain civil contracts. These contracts simply meant money-making enterprises and their "services" were expected al times of elections. It is this process - set rolling in the beginning of the Nineties, reaching its peak by 1995 that now stands shaken.

Despite Mr. Laloo Yadav not wanting, the sheer dynamic s of the social justice slogan becoming popular, the complete lack of any developmental activity and the oppressive social order

that still prevails leave Bihar on the brink of another kind of social churning.

It is this popular consciousness that has rendered parts of Bihar into strong centres of influence for extreme-Left platforms such as the CPI (ML-Lib-eration). the Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC) and the People s War Group.

Courtesy: The Hindu of India.