Nitish: Big Brother

Patna, Aug. 24: Like the Orwellian Big Brother, the Party will keep a watch in Nitish raj.

Taking a leaf out of the communist regimes which involve cadres in governance, the Bihar chief minister today called upon Janata Dal (United) leaders and workers to keep a vigil on flood relief work, execution of the Right to Service Act and distribution of homes to the poor under the Indira Awas Yojana.

In a departure from the manner in which he has been running the government for nearly six years, Nitish Kumar called a meeting of his party cadres and asked them to keep tabs on whether the benefits of welfare schemes were reaching the beneficiaries.

“All of you are supposed to renew your membership of the party by planting trees on August 30. You have to closely monitor if the Right to Service Act, which came into force on August 15, has been helping the people to get the desired service without paying bribes. Besides, you have to monitor the houses being distributed to the poor under the Indira Awas Yojana and flood relief work going on in your respective areas of activities,” Nitish said.

It was possibly the first time that Nitish had called the party cadres to a meeting at his 1 Aney Marg official residence. The chief minister, who has described the fasting Anna Hazare as a saint, spoke in the language of the social activist. “The party should continue its service to the people irrespective of whether I live or not. I am serving the people with all the will and commitment at my command,” Nitish said.

The state government has been under fire from the Opposition as well as a section within the NDA for its heavy reliance on the bureaucracy. By getting his cadres into governance, the chief minister appears to be trying to usher in “better co-ordination” between the party and the government.

But political observers pointed out that over-dependence on the party could boomerang if the cadres were not checked. “Look at what happened in Bengal. The communist regime allowed its cadres to infiltrate virtually every aspect of governance. As a result, the party became all-pervading and had a say in running of industry, education and health — three pillars of any society. The Left Front government could not find a way in which to check its cadres and resulted in its demolition in the last elections,” said a senior political observer in Patna, who requested anonymity.

How will the cadres go about their task? Nitish did not lay down any mechanism but asked the workers to “guide” the people on the new power that they have in the form of the Right to Service Act. “You have to monitor the implementation of the work for a year. If it works, the time-frame for different services in the act will be reduced to ensure faster services,” he said.

Ally BJP and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi welcomed the move but leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui was cautious.

“Let us see how it unfolds. Our leader Lalu Prasad has time and again said that bureaucracy has been dominating the Nitish government. We are not sure of Nitish Kumar’s ability to implement a better political culture in the state. We will wait and watch if he really involves the cadres in serving the people,” he said.