Caste solutions minus liquor, dowry
Political leaders in Bihar tend to find solutions with the aid of castes. BJP president C.P. Thakur, while participating in the feast organised by his party for Dalits, made a remark on a desirable change in the state. “I should not say it. But if Dalits leave liquor and Bhumihars leave dowry, the state will be a much better place to live in,” he remarked.
Incidentally, Thakur belongs to the Bhumihar caste himself. There were rumblings over Thakur trying to fix a vice on particular castes but a senior BJP leader defended him stressing that this was a phenomena which was in vogue even during the British era. “A particular extremely backward caste was branded as criminal in the British-era notification,” he said. “Well at least he did not spare even his own caste,” said a BJP leader.
At a recent BJP-sponsored function as dignitaries were garlanded, mines inister Satyadeo arayan Arya had to wait for a few minutes as the rganisers searched for a garland. “Are there no ore garlands? Please hurry, I cannot wait so long,” Arya said. Ultimately, a garland was found. “However, the incident s symbolic of Arya’s ong wait to get attention from the party leadership. He has won nine times rom the Assembly and was deputy leader of the BJP n the Assembly. Arya, ormally soft-spoken, ad to attack deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, alleging that he ad never been consulted n matters related to the ssembly wing of the arty. He was ultimately made a minister with a portfolio that has no eaning. There are no mines in Bihar worth he name and the epartment’s work in confined to sand mining,” said another BJP leader. While appointing persons in key posts, the powers-that-be always prefer officials to be “flexible” in nature. That is the term used for pliable officials who do anything that their political bosses ask them to. Officials, who remain firm on principles, may be admired but they are rarely given key posts. A senior official of a department is reported to be lobbying hard for the key post of his department. This official has even managed to get a top central BJP leader to plead his case. The problem with his political bosses in Patna is that he does have the reputation of being “flexible”. “The official is trying to send messages to his political bosses that he is willing to become flexible during his last couple of years in service. Everybody wants to hold a key post before retirement even at the cost of flexibility,” said nother official of he department. JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav created ripples among MLAs of Bihar at a programme for orientation f legislators when he addressed the Speaker of the Bihar Assembly Uday Narayan Choudhary by name without ffixing the traditional “ji” in his name used as a mark of respect. “Uday Narayan Choudhary could not have dreamed that he would become speaker of Bihar one ay,” he remarked, letting off whispers among a few LAs that Yadav should have added “ji”. “However, there should be no concern as most of the MLAs were napping in their seats,” remarked the MLA, insisting that it was the way Sharad spoke since he does not hail from the state and did not mean disrespect.
