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Patna,(BiharTimes): July 9 does not mark the completion of four-and-a-half years of Nitish Kumar’s rule, yet we are made to believe it––like many more things. Nitish Kumar became the chief minister on November 24, 2005. So every year on that day the state government comes out with report card and advertisements worth crores. In that way April 24 should be celebrated for the completion of four-and-a-half years and not July 9.

But coming out with report card and giving advertisements on April 24 would not have served the purpose as people’s memory is proverbially short. By the time the they go to vote the people may forget many of the works done by the government.

In Bihar we are made to understand many things with the help of newspaper advertisements. It is not that the government does not have its quota of success and failure––all governments do have––yet the way in which the dates, facts and figures are twisted with the help of advertisements is the real cause of concern in democracy.

BiharTimes has in the past already exposed how a premier national daily played up the growth rate story and then honoured the chief minister with business award weeks after the state government gave advertisements worth millions.

According to the story done by thehoot.org, a newsportal, on April 12 last “soon after coming into power, the Nitish Kumar government increased the quantum of advertisement to media by four times to what it was in the previous governments.” Naturally the newspapers and TV channels can not do this story. In this age of internet it is the newsportals who dared to challenge him.

The newsportal, thehoot.org based its story on the information procured from the RTI, therefore, there is no need of questioning it. “In just the last four years of Nitish regime, from 2005-09 till February 28, 2010, the state government gave advertisement for around 38,000 odd works and spent Rs 64.48 crore on them whereas in the period of six years the Lalu-Rabri government had spent around just Rs 23.9 crore.

So on July 9 again it was a celebration time for the media barons. Even small Urdu newspapers with circulation of a few hundreds or may be thousands got three to four pages of advertisement. Since all these achievements have already been hightlighted on November 24 last there was nothing new left to propogate. Thus most of the space were filled with the photos of chief minister, deputy chief minister and some Muslim, Hindus, Buddhist priests.

So if many dying vernacular dailies have become crorepati in the last four years or so, the national dailies and television channels––already passing through a period of recession––are all praise for chief minister for keeping them alive and kicking.

So no chief minister in India got award from three big media houses in the last so many years as did Nitish. Therefore, it is natural for them not to ask as to why not a single MW of electricity production increased in Bihar in the last four and half years.

In advertisement after advertisement and speech after speech we are told that IIT, off-campus centre of Aligarh Muslim University, Nalanda International University and Central University for Bihar have come up in the state, when the fact is that all these are central government institutions and can not be highlighted as the achievement of the state government. The tragic fact is that the state government has failed to provide land for these projects. In the case of AMU, it has made a mess. The students’ wing of the alliance partner, the ABVP, is opposing its establishment in Kishanganj. Similarly CUB is waiting for land for last so many months.

Ironically, the state government had nothing to say about its own colleges and universities on this occasion as they all are locked up. Strikes and agitations have become annual feature in universities and colleges in the last four years. Never had in the state history so many strikes took place in so quick succession.

True doctors are now attending the primary health centres, but that is because of thousands of crores of rupees pumped by the Union government under the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission. Even the pay for doctors comes from the Centre and so do the medicines.

And for the state government’s prestigious Patna Medical College Hospital the less said is better. Now the PMCH stands for Patient Marna Chhata Hai as over 500 patients, according to government figure, died due to strike in the last four years.
The chief minister, Nitish Kumar, became so fed up with the strikes that in June 2008 he even threatened to close the PMCH because of the repeated agitations by the Junior Doctors. Cases were filed against them, but then nothing happened.

None of the engineering and medical college of the state has sufficient faculty. Teachers from polytechnic institutes are teaching the students of Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology and Bhagalpur Engineering College. Yet the state government wants to open more medical and engineering colleges.

The state government boast that law and order situation has improved yet no mention is being made about manifold increase in number of cases of lynching. This simply because policemen do not accept FIRs as they had to show that the crime rate has fallen down.

With the media in its pocket the state government has learnt the art of marketing its own achievements. Now the success in all the centrally-sponsored schemes, from Hunar to the distribution of bicycle, is being attributed to its success while for the failure, be it NREGA or any other flag ship schemes, the Centre is held responsible.

And none in the media dared to ask as to from where and how was Rs five crore Kosi relief fund returned after 22 long months and why was it left unspent?

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ANOTHER REVOLUTION IN THE OFFING :
Since destruction is also creation, the methods Nitish Kumar used to pull down our beloved Bihar, the ruins will determine what kind of state arises from the rubble.Our struggle should not be completely political because political revolutions simply deliver concentrated power into new hands, rather than dispersing it. Furthermore, political thought is rarely innovative: political change usually originates from social conditions, rather than the other way around.So here we need to tap the anger generated by constant subjugation and deception at the hands of the mean political leadership and use it in favor of a positive change that Bihar is soon going to experience.
In today's context, revolution occurs when people stop believing one thing, and start believing something else; when people discard their old ways of living, and begin to live in new ways. Enough people have lost faith in every political institution of Bihar and are begining to act as if it did not exist.
We need to look for activities that assert individuality and autonomy from government control which will in itself be a profoundly revolutionary act, regardless of content.Like How Gandhiji started non-cooperation movement discarding everything made or procured by the English , so should the populace of Bihar reject every deceptive word and foul deed of the ruling NDA.
Let us transform Bihar into a place where thugs are cut down to size despite their expensive media management.
ARSHAD MOHSIN

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Its a criminal wastage of public money. It was our hard earn money and Nitish has spent it on publication of his big pix in Newspapers. We all are stonished to see his personal advt. in so many newspapers costing crores of rupees. Earlier he has corrupted govt. officers and now whole media industry was bribed ----- the money we paid to govt. The time has come to teach you a lesson.

Rama Shankar

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Read your article about Media and Bihar. I have some close contacts in media, and I know...how facts are being reshaped, changed, modified to suit who matters.
The present day governement is similar to the government as shown in George Orwell's 1984. Ministry of Truth is changing the facts. Ministry of Plenty preaches that there is enough for one and all, while the opposite is the truth.

In Bihar, the roads I saw, bore a sign "Pradhan Mantri gram sadak Yojna"
No efforts has been made for forlaning of highways...I guess Bihar is the only state in India where Highways are two lanes. I read an article where money sanctioned for Low Floor Buses were returned unutilized, while we know the real condition of transport.

No Public transport is there. The condition of buses and the bus stands are pathetic. In the nearby UP, the public transport is healthy, so is the condition of bus stand.

Patna is simply a glorified village. There is no electricity in Patna's prime location for 6-8 hours..that is enough to give a glimpse into rest of Bihar's condition. Giving up land for IIT, AIIMS, AMU everything has been delayed and messed up with.

I don't understand where did the hype and hoopla over crores and crores of money supposedly coming from industrialist willing to invest go....

NO SUBSTANCE. Just STYLE.

Rajeev Ranjan