Bihar elections 2015
There's been a widely covered spurt of crime in Bihar, with the BJP demanding the intervention of the governor following the shooting death of a jeweller on 16 January. However, the crime data doesn't back the BJP's accusations that Jungle Raj is back. The term "Jungle Raj" also implies a system in which no follow-up action is taken up after a crime. That is not the case under Nitish Kumar's chief ministership.
The campaign saw both alliances cover a gamut of issues, with varying degrees of emphasis, including religion, caste, development, corruption, nepotism, law and order et al. However, land reform did not come up in popular discourse during the vigorously fought election campaign. This reflects the power of land-owning communities in Bihar's society and polity.
In some intellectual circles, the Bihar verdict of 8 November 2015 marks the victory of the forces of secularism over communalism. In the annals of documented history, it will go down as the day in which the juggernaut of the mythical and invincible Modi was arrested. Half a century down the lane, these documented histories will be nothing more than mythological tales shamelessly hiding the biases and intellectual dishonesty of the intelligentsia/media/liberals. The truth is something else.
