In the thick of the ongoing scandal of the Muzaffarpur shelter home, a common Bihari is left wondering how his life is affected by it. After all, his family does not live in a shelter home. His daughter is told to strictly be home before a certain hour and his son might go to the neighbouring state for a drink or two but he never goes near any shelter homes. Why would he be worried about what happened in Muzaffarpur? But as someone who pays taxes, wants to safeguard cows and other holy animals, wishes to vote for the "powerful" leader even if he has dictatorial traits, the Bihari man must understand what a thin line he's walking.

The state's pathetic condition of public safety has not spared anyone. Murders, rapes and kidnappings are rampant while the chief minister's only response is to announce CBI enquiries left right and centre!

The state government is busy portraying itself as pro-people while the truth is that the CM has little interest in what happened. Instead of focusing on the matter at hand, Nitish Kumar is using this occasion to underline how the united opposition is the country's biggest nemesis.

He has failed to give satisfactory answers about the involvement of his ministers in the case. Latest revelations have shown the main accused, Brajesh Thakur, had links to many powerful people including a minister from Nitish's cabinet. As Thakur loiters in the visitor's area of the jail refusing to be locked inside the cell, the proverbial sushasan Kumar looks hapless as he can feel the public's favour slipping away from him.

The Supreme Court recently slammed the state government over rape of numerous girls in the shelter home. The apex court said that the Nitish government had virtually been "financing the horrific acts", since the shelters were state-sponsored.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Tiss) had raised concerns of rapes in many such shelter homes in the state, including the one in Muzaffarpur, months ago. It was done through a social audit report which was met with sheer disinterest by the Bihar government. But when the scandal was finally uncovered, the CM announced a CBI probe and hoped that he would be atoned of the sin of ignoring the months-old report.

It wouldn't take too much imagination to understand how many rapes could have been avoided had the government acted on time. In fact, all of these brutal crimes could have been evaded had the government conducted regular checks of the shelter homes, even without the Tiss report. Unfortunately, Nitish and his " antaraatma" were busy managing new alliances and defaming the old ones.

According to him, the whole system of NGOs should be diluted and people's welfare should be entirely in the hands of the government. This thought itself is highly debatable since the government has failed to perform even its basic duties. The issue, here, is not who runs a shelter home but how well they are checked and investigated for irregularities. How can we expect his government to work for the welfare of the people when they are unsuccessful in even ensuring their own welfare? Nitish's own welfare is grossly compromised by such incidents which have been on a rise in the last year or so. The public is truly tired of the CM's antics and the 2020 elections in Bihar would definitely show him the door out.

Almost everyone who's anyone in Bihar boasts of connections with those in power/administrative positions. But, the common man in Bihar is torn. He doesn't know how to reconcile the idea of the personal and the public. The common urban man thought that Nitish's major undoing was the liquor ban. But the shelter home has presented another example of how unsafe the state has become for those who are not in power. And the way Nitish's " antaraatma" dictates terms, you can never be sure till when you're on his friend list.

The rural population, on the other hand, (which accounts for more than 85 per cent of the state population according to the last census) is in no mood to forgive Nitish for having sided with the party that wrecked their homes with demonetisation and encouraged communal hatred in the name of cow vigilantism. Nitish's problems are far from over, his new alliance with the BJP notwithstanding. As farmers in Bihar struggle under floods in some areas and droughts in the others, the loss of cattle has been a major worry. In rural spaces, cattle is one of the most important form of wealth and it is the first thing to be compromised in unfavourable weather condition.

In unrelated news, PM Modi gifted 200 cows to villagers in Rwanda. This act of altruism from the PM has compelled me to think that he has relaxed his views on the butchering of cows. After all, Rwanda is a beef eating country... or did he gift them a few of our gau-rakshaks too? For the greater good of the country, I truly hope he has. We can surely live with a few less bloodthirsty gau-rakshaks.

The writer is lecturer, Delhi University, and author of Voter Mata Ki Jai