Now that Jitan Ram Manjhi is out and Nitish Kumar in nobody is paying any heed to what the former said in the nine months of his tenure. The reason is obvious: one hardly pays any attention to those who have lost.Manjhi may have betrayed Nitish; he might have sided with the BJP for pure personal gains and he might himself been involved in all the dirty political games. Yet some of the issues he had raised––may be for own survival––deserve to be dispassionately discussed.

If Nitish really wants to perform better he will have to accept that corruption was at its peak during the seven and a half years of the JD(U)-BJP rule and then 11 months of his own government. Neither Nitish nor his former friend and now rival number one, Sushil Kumar Modi, refute the fact that the corruption rate increased manifold when compared to the previous Rabri regime. Manjhi had cited several examples of how even as a minister he had to face this menace.

In Banka earlier this year he claimed that his government had spent much more funds than the previous Nitish regime had in the corresponding period in the last few years. At a number of places he had hinted that the claim of big development of the previous government was highly exaggerated. He may not be cent per cent right but has certainly dented the image of his predecessor.

Now it is clear that much of what Bihar had achieved was possible because the then Manmohan Singh government was much more generous than the previous Union governments and there was no shortage of funds.Manjhi had, times without number, hinted that these funds were used less and misused more as there was loot all over the state.

The Nitish-SuMo duo, with the help of media, would walk away with all the credit without giving ever thanking the UPA government when the fact is that almost all the major road projects––be it Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana or various National Highways––were largely centrally funded, so was the MNREGA, Mid-day Meal, Savr Shiksha Abhiyan etc. The fact is that everyone should have been his or her due.True Bihar has undergone a change, but now the people have started realizing that both Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi (till June 16, 2013) have grossly overstated this claim of development.As Bihar has now no shortage of funds it is natural that the rate of corruption too would rise. Manjhi was perhaps not wrong when he repeatedly claimed that the budget of any project would be over-estimated by 50 to 100 times––Rs 100 crore for the actual cost of Rs one or two crore.

In the last week in his office Manjhi, somewhat abruptly, confessed how the commission amount reaches him and that now he would redirect it to paying salary to teachers and in other developmental works.Here he might have been talking about himself but the truth is that he was referring to the chair of chief minister. This is a serious charge and––if it is not true––needs to be refuted.

Nitish and his long-time deputy, SuMo, will have to realize that they are largely responsible for reducing Patna into concrete jungle and cesspool during monsoon. A few parks and conventional centres are not all what the state capital needs.

The silence of the BJP leaders on the suspension of the Commissioner of Patna Municipal Corporation, Kuldeep Narayan, is intriguing. After all most of the times the portfolio of urban development and housing department was held by senior BJP ministers during the Nitish regime. They were Ashwini Choubey, Bhola Singh, Sushil Kumar Modi amd Prem Kumar. Yet virtually in one go the then Commissioner of PMC Senthil Kumar, violating all norms and rules, approved hundreds of apartments. SuMo can not wash his hands of by just targeting JD(U) MLA, Anant Singh. There were many other beneficiaries in his own camp too.

After all the process to legally get rid of Kuldeep Narayan started when the BJP was very much in the power.As alleged Manjhi may have been playing into the hands of feudal forces. But is not it a fact that Anant Singh, a strong man known for his proximity to Nitish, in a TV show, threatened the then chief minister. If Nitish really wants to dissociate himself from Anant Singh he will have to see to it that the case lodged against the MLA under the Dalit Atrocities Act reach its final conclusion. It is anyone’s guess what would have happened had any MLA talked of beating Nitish Kumar, or for that matter, any other CM.

Manjhi might have played his Mahadalit card in Gandhi’s Champaran when he said that the SCs and STs are original inhabitants of Bihar whereas the upper castes are outsiders. Once again it was Anant Singh, who said that the CM should be dumped into lunatic asylum. The BJP leaders too were furious and they all said that everyone are Indians.

The truth is that Manjhi never said that they were not Indians. What he said is being taught to children in schools amd colleges. Even the Sangh Parivar have always talked about the Aryan link. That is why they have always adopted a soft approach towards Hitler. And if Manjhi said he would get the hands of errant doctors chopped off he was no doubt crossing into the world of savagery. But is not it a fact that the then health minister Ashwini Choubey made the same remarks and none of the JD(U) and BJP ministers ever condemned him.