Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra: The Tasks Ahead

The Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra (Transform Bihar, Secure Justice), a simultaneous campaign of padyatras or people's marches criss-crossing the state of Bihar from October 16 to 26, will be remembered as one of the most vibrant mass initiatives undertaken by the CPI(ML) in Bihar in recent decades. The idea of a march took shape in early October and in just ten days the party got ready to launch not one or two but some two dozen marches covering at least thirty of Bihar's thirty-eight districts. And over the next ten days nearly five thousand party activists and supporters, including elected representatives and members of party committees on various levels, marched through some three thousand kilometres of district roads and state and national highways across the state. The yatras finally culminated in a grand mass convention at the historic Miller School ground of Patna.

In the course of this yatra, the marchers addressed at least a thousand public meetings attended by tens of thousands of people from all walks of life. In today's climate of glamorous road shows and capital-intensive politics, the yatra became a live model of labour-intensive people's politics - politics of the people, for the people and by the people. In terms of sheer scale of participation and mass outreach, the campaign became remarkably successful in striking a chord with diverse sections of aggrieved and deprived people. Landless poor families threatened with eviction in the name of land survey, low-income households reeling under inflated electricity bills and pre-paid metres, dalits and minorities facing feudal-communal violence, women scheme workers fighting for basic rights and living wages, teenage students concerned about the state of government schools in Bihar - all could readily identify with the theme of the yatra.

The ground for the yatra had been laid by the 'Haq Do, Vaada Nibhao' (Give Our Due, Keep Your Words) campaign around the three key demands of delivery of two lakh rupees financial assistance to each of the ninety-five lakh poorest households surviving on a monthly income of six thousand rupees or less, five decimal land to every landless household and pucca houses for all. These are promises made repeatedly by the so-called 'double engine' dispensation headed by Narendra Modi in Delhi and Nitish Kumar in Patna, but for millions of Bihar's deprived and oppressed poor these promises have turned into a cruel saga of betrayal. Between August and September, lakhs of people demonstrated in some two hundred blocks against this continued betrayal and neglect of the most basic demands of the toiling people of Bihar.

To add insult to injury, the Nitish Kumar government inflicted two additional blows, firstly by launching a 'land survey' which threatens to evict Bihar's landless poor from whatever gains they had made through decades of land struggle since the days of abolition of landlordism and presumably create a land bank for corporate land-grab, and secondly, by imposing pre-paid metres which are literally robbing low-income households and threatening to deprive them of their right to electricity. The yatra therefore demanded a halt on the land survey till the regularisation of the land in the possession of the poor and fulfilment of the government promise of five decimal land for every landless family and withdrawal of the pre-paid metre scheme and making provision for two hundred units of free electricity per month for the poor and for Bihar's farmers. These demands struck a deep chord with broad sections of common people.

Bihar is clearly in a phase of political transition. A generation shift is underway from the era of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sushil Modi and a new generation is coming to the fore across the political spectrum. The BJP which has been ruling Bihar from behind for the last two decades is now desperate to exploit this growing political vacuum to capture power on its own and inflict a 'bulldozer raj' on Bihar like it has done under Yogi Adityanath in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. It was not just a coincidence that the Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra had to contend with the so-called Hindu Swabhiman Yatra of Giriraj Singh which made a brazen mockery of the Constitution to foment anti-Muslim hate and violence in the districts of eastern Bihar. In answer to young Bihar's demand for more and better schools, Giriraj only had trishuls (tridents) to offer. The two yatras thus projected two contrasting visions for the future of Bihar.

The call 'Badlo Bihar' of course rings a deeper note for it highlights the agenda of transformation of Bihar than a mere transition or change of guard. Contrary to the narrative being sought to be set by the likes of Prashant Kishor and of course the BJP, Bihar is not looking for restoration of the old feudal order with some pseudo-modern appearance. What Bihar demands is fulfillment of the long-neglected fundamental needs as well as the growing aspirations of the people to which successive governments have only paid lip services. From the iconic slogan of roti-kapda-makaan (food, clothing and shelter) to items of basic infrastructure like bijli-pani-sadak (electricity, water and roads) and much-neglected rights like education, health and employment, a backward state like Bihar which is being exploited as a captive export zone for cheap labour is crying out to break free from the shackles of poverty, economic backwardness and social oppression.

The women of Bihar - from the midday meal workers who receive a paltry fifty-five rupees a day for only ten months in a year, to ASHA activists who risked their own lives to save and serve Bihar during the Covid19 pandemic only to find Nitish Kumar renege on the agreement to pay a monthly incentive of 2,500 rupees and now the Jeevika cadre who were instrumental in enrolling millions of women of Bihar in the network of Self Help Groups being asked to survive by collecting contributions from the SHGs - have been among the worst victims of betrayal in the two decades of NDA rule in Bihar. The same can be said about the dalit-bahujan communities of Bihar who continue to find themselves subjected to the worst forms of social discrimination and feudal violence, and the youth of Bihar who still have to migrate to other states for higher education and jobs. And if the Giriraj Singhs can have their way Bihar will turn into a laboratory of anti-Muslim hate and violence.

Backed by the 'Haq Do, Vaada Nibhao' campaign, the Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra has brought the agenda of social transformation and comprehensive justice to the fore. The yatra has shown us glimpses of the potential of collective assertion of Bihar's poor, women and youth that must now be harnessed in full to turn Badlo Bihar into a clarion call for a sustained movement of the people. The growing vacuum in Bihar politics must not be allowed to be exploited by anti-Constitution forces and regressive ideas to push Bihar back. It is for the inheritors of Bihar's vibrant communist and socialist traditions to take the lead and carve the way forward to take Bihar ahead on the road to a life of dignity, rights and justice for all, holding high the banner of social equality and communal harmony.