(Bihar Election Watch)The Nitish–Lalu Bihar War 2010 has been declared and will get fiercer in coming days before the final onslaughts. It will be all over before I return to my Noida home.

Lalu has declared the heir-apparent of his party. He also has selected the male child instead of the female one as Sonia did few years ago. But he has finally decided to keep the mother of the heir apparent also in the fray and that too she will be fighting from two constituencies to have a sure win.

I wonder if the electorates of Bihar will prefer to go for establishing the Lalu clan on the throne. One can imagine what can happen if by some chance Lalu wins the battle. Will there be no tussle between the father, mother or the son to occupy the throne?

But will these announcements from the horse’s mouth not help Nitish in winning the battle or the great voters of Bihar overlook this perpetuating of the family rule of the state that was faced already by the state for almost three decades?

Many including myself wish Nitish to return in absence of any better choice. Nitish might not have been aggressive enough to pull up the state from its bottommost position in all the rankings among the states of India. However, Nitish did make a beginning. The development has got on track. I wish he goes for a kill in the next tenure.

Nitish has indicated his intention of development for the next term in his latest blog. However, in the next three years Nitish must establish a thousand skill-building centres, that, if necessary, can be run in second shift or evening in at least one rural school in every panchayat. All the children of the rural Bihar before reaching 16 years must learn at least one skill for employability. Nitish must seek the assistance of all including the institutions such as Anji Reddy’s Nandi Foundation or individuals such as Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, or Mukesh/Anil Ambani. To start with, Nitish can use the locally available artisans and skilled persons for training.

Nitish must think of handing over the task of regulating and controlling the discipline and quality of school education to outside agencies such as Pratham abolishing the inefficient and corrupt government inspectors.

Nitish must encourage the private and government colleges to compete with the best of those in other states or to close if they can’t. Nitish must kill all the malpractices in education and examination system.

Nitish must get at least one hundred engineering colleges established in the state that must cater to the demand of the state and cut down the worries of the parents of the children getting exploited by the institutions in other states.
And if Nitish does not have a man to do that I can do it for him free.
One thing for sure I hate his banning of political leaders of his own alliance to campaign in the state. I also pity BJP to compromise on such a highly undemocratic and humiliating step of Nitish. I do not know if I can call it large-heatedness, magnanimity or cowardice act of BJP. I don’t know how the people of Bihar take it. How can Modi or Barun become untouchables, if BJP is not? I can take it as the statesmanship of Modi. It is strange that Lalu still prides himself of being the one to arrest Advani. Does not the Nitish’s act resemble or smell the same?
I don’t know how the people of Bihar will go in this election. But when I was just getting into a nightmarish mood so far away from my own country, I came across the news report related to Sandip’s unique innovation, the folding bicycle.

For me Sandip is more important than Nitish or Lalu. And I wish I could be of any help to Sandip to make his dreams coming true. I wish Sandip could contact me. Or will Nitish, still the chief minister, the governor of Bihar or for that matter anyone help Sandip?