Backwardness the new branding?

THE HINDI PRISM

Anand  Vardhan

The politics of development has a fashionable pull for mainstream media, more so if it concerns the BIMARU states (a lampooning acronym for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). So when Bihar Chief Minister and Janta Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar held his show of strength in Delhi on March 17 seeking special status for the state on the plank of economic backwardness, the Hindi press and its English counterpart editorially engaged with the ostensible development premises of the event vis-à-vis its political narrative.

How did the political underpinnings of the event play out with its high-pitched rhetoric? Did terms of discourse get shaped by the governance debate about models of development, dissection of ‘special status’ demand and the imperatives of Centre-state relations?

The politics of development found greater space in the Hindi press as well as English dailies in editorial commentary and opinion pieces, though dissection of development models and the  ‘special status’ claim also found critical reflection. Perhaps the most defining piece on the subject was eminent political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s (Special Retreat,  Indian Express, March 19) in which he observes: ‘Nitish Kumar’s show of strength demanding special status for Bihar is a politically over-determined gesture. But it also signals a deeper political economy challenge in Bihar…What Bihar needs is a targeted attack on specific bottlenecks, not another legal status.’

The lurking danger of ‘competitive backwardness’ in such demands for ‘special status’ is what worried Dainik Jagran’s national bureau chief Anshuman Tiwari (Pichcharne ka Puraskar, Prize for Lagging Behind, Dainik Jagran, March 18), as he observes (as translated from Hindi): ‘Central government is going to change the parameters of identifying backward states, which implies states would compete with each other to prove themselves more backward. States desperate for special status would begin distributing posters showing their deplorable condition and would massage the political ego of the central government. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has begun this campaign…More than half of the states in the country would join this fray advertising their poverty…Backwardness would be the new branding of the states…The political stunt of UPA government has turned the development debate in the country upside down.’

The same daily carried an article by public finance expert Govind Bhattacharjee (Vivesh Darje Ke Maayne, Meaning of Special Status, Dainik Jagran, March 21) questioning the relevance of special status for developmental objectives.

 The thrust of the commentary in Hindi and English dailies was on decoding the political messages sent from the Adhikar Rally for possible electoral permutations and combinations in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as well as the post-poll scenario. Taking note of the political implications of the rally in his piece in Jansatta (Vishes Package ki Vishes Rajniti, Special Politics of Special Package, March 19), Arvind Mohan traced signs of a pragmatic trade-off as he remarked (as translated from Hindi): “In fact, the rally has opened new avenues for national politics. If Congress and JD(U) are seen coming closer for their political needs, it should not be surprising. After Narendra Modi’s candidature (for Prime Minister’s post), JD(U) would find it difficult to retain its Muslim votes. And Congress can’t stand on its own in the state (Bihar). In the bargain, if Bihar tries to address its economic plight through a Centre-funded package, nobody should complain. Electoral arithmetic or compulsions of mustering support for government formation shape such games.”

In the context of favourable media positioning, one of the allegations against the Nitish government has been its influence over a sizeable section of media through a carrot-and- stick policy of awarding and denying state government advertisements. Prabhat Khabar, the Ranchi-based daily having multiple editions in Jharkhand and Bihar, is an alleged beneficiary of such favouritism. The opinion pieces in the daily did little to dispel such perceptions – rather, they reinforced them. CSDS fellow Chandan Shrivastav (Pichchre subo ka muhavra, Idiom of Backward Provinces, March 19) and political analyst Sanjay Kumar (Dilli mein Rally ke Nihitarth, The Implicit Meanings of the Rally in Delhi, March 18) have provided a polemical defence of Nitish’s demand for special package and even described the Delhi rally as harbinger of a movement.

Nitish’s special package campaign in Delhi has also been defended in the pages of the national press by two former bureaucrats-turned-members of his advisory coterie. Former revenue secretary and now Rajya Sabha MP N K Singh (Vikas ke Adhikar se Banegi Baat, Right to Development Will Make Things Work, Hindustan, March 20) emphasised the need for special interventions to give development a push. Former diplomat (now Advisor to the Bihar Chief Minister) Pavan K Varma wrote a letter to The Times of India (March 20) to defend the Bihar government against the daily’s thinly disguised critique of Nitish’s development model and demand for special assistance (Nitish’s Skinny Model, ToI, March 19).

Edits in other Hindi and English dailies were also keen to unwrap the political dynamics underlying Nitish’s development rhetoric, and in the process, the development models also came under scrutiny. The backwardness plank for scoring political points and forging new electoral alliances has been met with guarded scepticism and even criticism in the edits in Hindi dailies Jansatta (Nitish ke nishane, Nitish’s Targets, March 19), Dainik Jagran (Dilli Rally ki Anugunj (Echo of Delhi Rally, March 21), Amar Ujala (Ek Teer se Kai Nishane (Many Targets with One Arrow, March 18), Rajasthan Patrika (March 18) and Navbharat Times (March 18). Edits in some major English dailies struck a similar note – The Hindu (Moment of Reckoning, March 19), Indian Express (Specially from Bihar, March 18), The Hindustan Times (Nitish Sets Stage for 2014, March 19).

It’s a sign of the nature of political discourse of our times that core developmental issues confronting the political economy of Hindi heartland states get stuck in political opportunism and alliance manipulations. The political subtext of the development narrative in Bihar has become its leitmotif in national politics. Commentary in the Hindi press has largely reflected this. For now, it’s advantage politics of development – issues of development and challenges of economic backwardness can take a back seat.