Poverty in Bihar is largely due to lack of self-esteem and the consequent lack of assertiveness. Let me present a few facts.

After the independence in 1947, a large number of academic institutions were established at many places in the country under the aegis of the central government. Most such institutions meant for the Eastern region went to the state of West Bengal that is smaller than Bihar in all respects. IIT Kharagpur, Viswa Bharati, ISI Calcutta, IIM Calcutta, Bose Institute and a host of other academies are verifiable examples. All this happened at a time when Bihar was the best-administered state. The then Chief Minister Dr. S.K. Sinha and central ministers like Jagjivan Ram had a responsibility to plead for the state, yet they kept quiet. Good academic institutions do not just lift educational standards of a state but also lift its morale, and lend it a status and an image that are imperative for the growth of a community.

Today, Delhi alone boasts of four central universities, an IIT and a number of other institutes that are directly financed by the Centre. Similarly, North-Eastern region alone has five central universities and an IIT while Bihar has not even one. (The collective population of the North-Eastern states is about one-third of the population of Bihar. Similarly, size of Delhi is about one-tenth that of Bihar.) Whereas BJP condemns appeasement on religious grounds, it remains silent about appeasement on other grounds. Existence of so many central universities in the North East is a clear example of appeasement to secessionist elements.

Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi recently consolidated his vote bank by installing an Indian Institute of Information Technology (sponsored by the Centre) in his home constituency of Allahabad. The task was easy, since Dr. Joshi is himself the Minister of HRD. Just a few years ago, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee's constituency of Lucknow (that already has a number of research institutes under the auspices of the Union) got a central university named after Dr. Ambedkar. That took the tally of such universities in Uttar Pradesh to three. Ask for such an institution at Patna or Ranchi, and the government will say that there is a serious resource crunch. Uttar Pradesh has been an epicentre of power for both Congress and BJP. Accordingly, it receives a major share in every possible cake. (When it comes to vote-bank politics, there is little difference among various political parties.)

The ill-treatment of Bihar during successive Congress governments was not limited to the area of academic institutions only. While headquarters of Eastern Railway and South-Eastern Railway were established at Calcutta, that of North-Eastern Railway went to Gorakhpur in UP. There does not seem to be a single good reason why major parts of rail network in Bihar be controlled from places like Malda, Mughalsarai, Gorakhpur, Asansol and Calcutta that are outside Bihar.

Politicians of all parties have systematically exploited the innocent people of Bihar. Outsiders like Madhu Limaye, George Fernandes, I.K. Gujral, Sharad Yadav and S.S. Ahluwalia got elected to the parliament from Bihar, but they rarely raise(d) issues relating to development of the state. (Let CPM supremo Harkishan Singh Surjeet contest an election from the communist bastion of West Bengal. How many votes will he get?)

The number of trips H.D. Dave Gowda made to Karnataka during his prime ministership far exceeded the number of times I.K. Gujral uttered the word "Bihar" during his Prime ministership. (Gujral, the PM had been an MP from Bihar.) In fact, Gujral showed his true colours when he exercised a mega loan waiver for Punjab towards the end of his prime ministership. (Gujral's mother tongue is Punjabi.) The Akalis immediately returned the favour by sending Gujral to the Lok Sabha from Jalandhar in 1998.

The latest outsider getting elected to the parliament from Bihar is S.S. Ahluwalia, who switched his loyalty from Congress to BJP. Anybody can examine Ahluwalia's recent statements inside/outside Rajya Sabha: He is more worried about plight of Punjabis outside Punjab than the plight of Biharis inside Punjab. Will BJP ever field a Bihari to represent Punjab in the parliament?

The MPs have a responsibility to raise issues relating to the state that elect them. Regrettably, that is not the case with respect to the MPs from Bihar. On the other hand, members from other states have been forcefully doing their job. Just a few years ago, an MP (communist, not a gentleman) from West Bengal said in the Rajya Sabha, "We can be nasty if interests of our state are overlooked by the Centre."

Lack of self-esteem can be seen on many fronts. When Nitish Kumar was the railway minister during 1998-1999, Ms. Mamata Banarjee openly accused him of favouring his state. Now, Ms. Banarjee (as railway minister) has been openly favouring her state, yet Nitish Kumar does not have the guts to open his mouth. While several rail projects in Bihar have been rolled back, a number of trains introduced recently in West Bengal have been running on a deficit.

People outside Bihar treat the state as a butt of joke. When a train gets delayed at Patna, they attribute it to badness of the state, and when the same train gets delayed at Allahabad, they invent technical reasons for the problem. At a dinner party attended by me in Delhi in 1998, a great academician called Bihar untouchable: That man's son had been my student at Delhi Institute of Technology where I taught from 1991 to 1998. Bihar has been in the grip of a vicious circle: Give the state a bad name, and use that as a ploy to deprive it of the necessary resources; in the process, situation worsens leading to yet another ruse to ignore the state.