London, Sept. 23: Jitan Ram Manjhi came, saw and, on the whole, rather impressed when he appealed for help for his state when giving a key note address at the London School of Economics last night.

The Bihar chief minister spoke in Hindi but might have done better had he spoken extempore in the style of Narendra Modi rather than read out dense text packed with percentages for this, that and the other and no doubt written by a collection of civil servants.

Those who didn’t understand Hindi had to put on headphones and listen to simultaneous translation that was just about adequate. Manjhi, who said he was the son of a bonded labourer who got beaten up when he asked his upper caste landlord if his son could go to school, has done well to get to where he has. But if he wants to take his state forward, which clearly he does, then perhaps he should start teaching English to children sooner rather than later.

Last night, Manjhi rather won over his audience by portraying the grim reality of governing a state that had for long been ungovernable. There were no embellishments, which made a nice change, certainly when compared with the corporate delegations from the CII and Ficci who invariably and understandably paint a glowing picture of India.

The LSE, which is a huge organisation with competing fiefdoms, has a section called the International Growth Centre, which had invited the chief minister to give a keynote address, The Bihar Story: Resurrection of the State, Inclusion and Growth.

A note issued by the IGC set out the parameters: “In the not so distant past, the Indian state of Bihar was a byword for lawlessness, poverty, and absence of governance. Over the last decade or so, the state has demonstrated a remarkable turnaround and has consistently been amongst the fastest growing states in the country. The chief minister of Bihar, Jitan Ram Manjhi, will talk about the process that has led to this transformation and what this means for the people of Bihar.”

The chief minister “strongly advocates the eradication of socio-economic inequalities and lack of opportunities for India’s depressed classes,” the note added. “He supports extensive socio-economic rights for women and gender equality.”

The 69-year-old chief minister, who looked relaxed in his crisp white dhoti, had done a little tour of London before coming on to the LSE and had been impressed with how clean the city was.

His speech was split into three parts. Part one dealt with the glory that was Bihar, harking back to the Maurya dynasty from 322–185 BC with its capital at Pataliputra, Bodhgaya and the world’s oldest university at Nalanda — mention of Nalanda brought several references to Amartya Sen, the chancellor of the new university.

Part two dealt with the horror that was Bihar with quite a bit of detail of how lawless the caste-ridden state had become.

Part three dealt with the positive developments and the high growth rate since 2005 under Nitish Kumar whom Manjhi replaced in May. “Between 2007-2012, it was an average of 11 per cent, compared with 6.46 per cent for India as a whole.”

In London, people are not aware of the minutiae of Bihar politics. But Manjhi went down well when he was self-effacing and attributed most of the good things that had happened to Bihar as having been initiated by his predecessor. He was simply trying to take forward Nitish’s legacy “to the next step”.

This is the kind of modesty that wins politicians friends in London.

Manjhi described the conditions of poverty in Bihar in harrowing detail, before declaring: “As chief minister, it’s my duty to look after the poor.”

He went on: “I may not be able to do what I have to do in Bihar. But it is Nitish Kumar who has given it a vision.”

He revealed that free bicycles given to girls had increased their attendance rate to 40 per cent from a very low figure — another successful policy that had been started by Nitish. It was his hope that free bikes, given to girls in class 9, would in future be extended to class 8.

He spoke of different aspects of empowerment for women — from panchayats to giving girls a prize of Rs 15,000 if those from poor backgrounds matriculated with a first division and Rs 10,000 for a second.

Manjhi exuded a kind of quiet dignity that appealed to his audience.

The chairman of last night’s panel, Lord Karan Bilimoria, the founder of Cobra Beer who has set up a brewery in Bihta near Patna, was asked by a young woman why he had risked his money in what many outsiders thought of as a dodgy state.

“I believe in the new Bihar,” responded Bilimoria.

Panel members who offered suggestions on how life in Bihar could be improved included Professor Robin Burgess, director of the International Growth Centre and Professor of Economics at LSE; Dr Shaibal Gupta, founder member-secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) in Patna, and is also the country co-director of the International Growth Centre’s India-Bihar programme; and Dr Ruth Kattumuri, co-director of the LSE Asia Research Centre and India Observatory.

The chief minister’s departure for dinner was delayed while he clearly relished doing meet-and-greet with members of the well-off Bihar diaspora in Britain and others.