But consciously or unconsciously Nitish often ends up following the man who now apparently talks more about Gujarati asmita and less about Hindutva. Some political observers feel that this is a style to camouflage his own brand of communalism. May be or may not be.

In the last couple of years Nitish too has been reminded of the Bihari sub-nationalism. Before 2010 perhaps nobody in the powers that be was aware of the importance of March 22.

But that is not enough. The Nitish government’s decision to invite cine-star Amitabh Bachchan to Patna for March 22 Bihar Diwas celebration has raised more questions than answer as here again it has followed the Gujarat government.

Not to be forgotten Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador of Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.

Just as Gujarat is neither the janambhoomi or karambhoomi of Big B, he has absolutely nothing to do with Bihar, which he had visited only once, and that too a few months back to promote his film.

Yet he is a very special guest for the occasion. But the very question of branding sounds somewhat ridiculous, especially in the case with Bihar. In the last six years there is too much of branding of Bihar. The media has given more than due to the state and the present government. Now it is the time to ask some straight questions.

Narendra Modi needed a pair of crutches to brand himself because his image was seriously tarnished by the 2002 pogrom. But that is not the case with Nitish.

Regretfully today there is nobody to question the very logic of spending crores on the so-called Bihar Diwas, a non-event, till a couple of years back. Ironically, three precious days of the second last week (March 22-24) of the financial year would be wasted in celebration. Normally, officials and state government machinery work overtime during these days.

Besides, it would be the peak of examination season yet schools have been involved in them. In fact Plus-II examination of Bihar School Examination Board has been postponed and now it will take place from March 26 and end on April 9.

The greatest tragedy is that not a single newspaper chose to question this decision of the Board even when BiharTimes had highlighted as to how the examination of Plus-II now clashes with pre-medical test of the CBSE (PT), which is to take place on April 1, while the Board examination of those with Physics, Chemistry and Biology as their subjects end on April 3. Even those with Math as their subject will get little time to appear in IIT-JEE on April 8 as the PCM exam ends on April 5. Two days time is too little if the IIT Centre is allotted out of the state.

Had this issue been raised in any other regime the date would have been suitably changed. But now a week after the announcement of new schedule there is no one bothered about the issue. The state ruled by an engineer chief minister is least interested in students appearing in the pre-medical test of the CBSE or IIT. Rather branding Bihar is more essential.

Nobody is here to question as to why the percentage of candidates cracking IIT, AIEEE, CBSE medical and Civil Services examination from Bihar are gradually coming down in the last few years. Just compare the figure of Civil Service and IIT results of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh etc with Bihar.

Newspapers donot publish bad news as it would adversely affect the image of Bihar and turn the investors away.

States born after independence do celebrate their birthday, but generally not those carved out before that. So if Bihar had not been celebrating its creation since 1912 it was simply because it was no big event as the goal of the people earlier was freedom from the British Raj. Those who were at the helm of affairs for full 98 years before this phenomenon started were not fools.

Apart from having some roads and bridges built––and for that one must give credit to the centrally sponsored PMGSY and East-West Corridors and Golden Quadrilateral too––the state had made no achievement worth highlighting so much. Yet nobody is questioning as to why no investment and no big industry have come to the state in the last six years. Why there is no electricity in the state though the power tariff had doubled and is expected to go up further in near future.

Amitabh Bachchan will seek his own pound of flesh for coming to Bihar. But in the absence of virtually non-existing opposition and presence of pliable media who will dare to ask about the millions of ghost school children who pedalled away with thousands of cycles, uniforms and scholarship money.

Nobody is going to ask as to what happens to hundreds of crores of the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission money every year and why the junior doctors had to go for strike for the same old demand for the last so many years. In reaction the health minister warns that their hands would be chopped off.

There is 50-75 percent vacancies for the post of teachers in engineering and medical colleges of the state yet the state government is busy opening more such institutes. The state capital already has a museum, yet Rs 370 crores will be spent on what is called a world class museum. The ministers and legislators already have bungalows and flats, yet they would be demolished and over Rs 300 crore would be spent to built mansions for them.

Needless to mention the Rs 150 crore Buddha Smriti Park built near Patna Station and inaugurated by Dalai Lama on May 27, 2010, started leaking in the very second monsoon––it withstood the first one as there was deficit rainfall that year.

Is this all about branding Bihar?

*(Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based free lance journalist.)

Comment

comments...

This is a non-sense piece of journalism. Utter rubbish! It is prophesied that press is the fourth pillar of Indian democracy. Unfortunately, the custodians of this fourth pillar assume no responsibility whatsoever. They have zero accountability. That is why they forget their Hippocratic Oath and resort to propaganda stories, like the one above. Shame on you!

Vendetta stories should be propagated on personal websites and personal accounts like Facebook or Twitter or any other social media accounts. Being a news portal, Bihartimes is not an appropriate forum for disseminating one's hidden agenda.

Pradeep

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It is very difficult to differentiate between paid and impartial news/journalism since in both cases people get confused about the veracity of facts and are left in lurch to come on final conclusion hence ultimately in such situation democracy suffer immensely by the hand of third pillar of our democracy.  But this is also fact that the commodity which looks attractive are able to  attract more customers and even after ongoing trend of  online marketing people prefer to visit at shops and  test the product physically before buying it.

Analysis of government performance by Mr Soroor Ahmad and connecting it to celebration of Bihar Dewas doesnt make sense since this celebration seems a demonstration of angry or deprived states of country just as Amitab Bachan is known and branded " angry man" of Bollywood. What a clever gesture of Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi to convey the message and image making step of the state which no doubt still deprived from the favors of Amitabh Bachans of industries. It Clearly shows that neither Bihar is going to emulate Gujarat Or Maharashtra or any other states since every state has its own individuality and as far as Bihar is concerned it also feels and have need  to make its own identity through such move.

I shall not argue point by point on the issues which was raised by one of the experienced journalists of Bihar it looks that he wants to term this celebration a demonstration of  achievement of present government. I think it should be left on people to decide whether they come to see Amitab Bachan or decorate their streets in order to show their passion of sub-nationalism.

Sameer

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I agree that the state has not achieved in the past few years leaving aside roads and bridges  . Other issues raised are also very relevant and pertinent . Government's failures on other  front is also noteworthy.

However, these are not adequate enough as to why state should NOT celebrate Bihar diwas.  Bihari became scapegoat of media's negative hype during previous government. That needs to be  redeemed with new improved image and perception ..as it matters to Bihari . No denying that  real progress is also very much required to take Bihar to at least national average of  progress .

In view of the same ..Bihar deserves to celebrate and demonstrate its willngness to move ahead  towards progress ...the class of masses including students may participate in it in a subdued  manner .....as if India's cricket team playing world cup final during March 2012! 

Let all Bihari be Bihari also ( we remained only Indians for centuries !)Celebrate the moment  in their own way !

Ambikanand Jha
Mangrouni ,Madhubani,Bihar/Singapore

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This article shows how prejudice are you. Amitabh is a legendary person and endorsing Gujrat tourism doesn't make him untouchable.  You may have hatred against Modi but Amitabh is not known only as brand ambassador of his govt. he has another greater Identity as well. With so much hate, person like you will never do any good to the society.. I am sure you have got only one quality for the betterment of the society i.e. by Criticizing everything. Before showing mirror to the others, can you count your five contribution to the socity or to even your community?
Yes.. no one denies that there are problems and backwardness.. things are slowly getting better, we will improve with time. But that doesn't mean we always need to make a hue and cry about the problems. One thing we all agree that we have a society where most of the people are immoral and have adopted corruption as a family member. Even a streetlight needs protection in Bihar, or there are thieves looking a chance to steal it.. this is how Bihar is.. We can't change the moral of people in a day ..  15 years of governance mess has left us with messed up whole new generation of people. Its not only the duty of Govt. to work for change, its the people who will actually make it happen..

I am sure you are not going to publish this reply .. but I will be happy if it reaches to Soroor.

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Ravish Bharti