Rahul Gandhi: Mission Bihar

MISSION BIHAR

Shitanshu Shekhar Shukla
New Delhi, February 4
To the drone of an approaching helicopter, a sea of humanity arises at Bhitharwa ashram in West Champaran district in Bihar on February 1.
A motley group of the old, the young, the adolescent crane their neck out in bewilderment. They are competing to catch the first glimpse of Congress heir apparent flying down in the sun-bleached sky. The 38-year-old heir to Congress dynasty, son, grandson and great-grandson of prime ministers, Rahul Gandhi is coming to them.
Never before has any one from the Nehru-Gandhi family visited the ashram since Mahatma Gandhi launched the Satyagraha movement in 1917 leading to freedom struggle. The local populace is not much better today than their ancestors were when Bapu visited the place to free them from indigo cultivation, forced by British.
Most have inherited only poverty, wearing wrinkles and furrows cutting their faces deep for sweat drops to flow through under the hard glare of sun. It explains the boundless enthusiasm swaying the poor. Can history repeat itself, one wonders?
“Congress workers will fight for the rights of the people without fear and bring about a change in Bihar,” Rahul said at Bettiah, a few kilometers away from the ashram.
According to Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Sharma, “It was an unscheduled visit. Rahul decided to visit Bhitharwa at the last moment. He arrived there unannounced and yet, there were almost one lakh villagers when Rahul alighted. Probably they believed their miseries to disappear at his sight”
The decision to start Mission Bihar with tracing Mahatma’s footsteps won curious attention much to the chagrin of the ego-driven politicians.
When asked later about the cause of visit, Rahul said that Mahatma was his idol and inspiration.
The explanation was accepted in right earnest, a marked departure from the dismissive and snide remarks when Rahul had embarked upon Mission Uttar Pradesh during last Lok Sabha polls, or when he had started visiting the Kalawatis in thatched huts. Always fond of shooting off lip, Lalu found his tongue twisted. Caught short of words, he could do little more than murmur his unease.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar shielded himself under his colleague. People were warned against attempts to mislead. Always calling him poster boy, yuvraaj, novice ducked the query, the BJP feigned ignorance. It is measure of Rahul’s successful political enterprise.
His visits to Darbhanga, Patna campuses, Gaya were closely monitored by the professional politicians zealously guarding their turfs. They have got good reasons to feel threatened. He travelled further to Bhagalpur and Kishanganj to gauge the mood of the Muslim voters in the state.

Wherever he went, people fell head over heels.
BPCC president Anil Sharma says, “Rahul’s visit was private. He was to give a pep talk to the potential candidates for approaching state assembly elections. So we had not announced his visit publicly. Nowhere did we put up any poster, banner. His itinerary was not guarded either. But the kind of response his visit got was too good to believe.”
Reasons behind the frenzy are not far to seek.
The youth find his straight talk, unorthodox political style and in-face attitude assuring. His conscious decision to stay out of a government where every post is his for the asking has added to his appeal among the electorates tired of politicians buying power with a murderous zeal.
Besides, in the past 12 years when the party allowed itself to be dominated by Lalu, Congressmen remained content playing second fiddle. When Rabri Devi was the Chief Minister, nobody from the Congress dared to question Lalu over any of his decisions. The Grand Old Party was ridiculed as Lalu’s B team.
Lalu’s influence over the Congress was so complete that it agreed to contest only four out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2004 parliamentary elections.
During his visit, Rahul told the state Congressmen that alliance with Lalu was a mistake. The unholy alliance has completed the circle.
This was something that many Congressmen had tried to prevail upon the party high command over the years but in vain. Finally, the Congress woke up to an overconfident Lalu refusing to leave even four seats for the Congress during the Lok Sabha polls last year.
The betrayal turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Congress in Bihar. Humiliated, it shook off Lalu’s crutches. Inspite of disastrous performance in the last Lok Sabha polls, the decision to go alone gave the party men their confidence back.
The Congress remarkable turnaround in Uttar Pradesh in the last general elections under Rahul’s leadership also filled them with a hope that similar results, if not better, could be possible in Bihar.
He is subject of discussion among the same people as were not ready to look beyond the troika of Lalu Prasad- Nitish Kumar- Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar politics.
All India Congress Committee member from Bihar, Ashok Ram said, “Rahul’s appeal cuts across caste and creed. His visit has given us a start which we needed for a good finish,”.
Rahul said Bihar was one of the states which had produced the maximum number of IAS officers in India.
“When you are ruling other states, why can’t you rule your own state,” he asked the youths. He added in the same refrain that the state was not progressing because youths were not entering politics.
By focussing on youths, Rahul drove home the point that the youngsters were the pivot of his plan to make a dent into electoral fort held by regional satraps in Bihar.
The Youth Congress has launched a massive month-long membership drive in Bihar since January 12.
Irrespective of results of state assembly polls, Rahul has certainly turned the seemingly bi-polar contest into triangular. Till now, the contest was between RJD-LJP and BJP-JD (U).
Threatened, the political parties have swung into action. The JD (U) is preparing for a Mahadalit rally at Patna on February 21. Ram Vilas Paswan will organise a rally on March 18. The RJD’s Bihar bandh was a part of same exercise.