Politics and Governance in India States: Bihar, West Bengal and Tripura by Subrata K. Mitra & Harihar Bhattacharyya

Author:Subrata K. Mitra & Harihar Bhattacharyya [Mitra, Subrata K. & Bhattacharyya, Harihar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789813208223
Google: 075mAQAACAAJ
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company Pte. Limited
Published: 2017-12-31T12:32:25+00:00

Source: Election Commission of India.

From 1993, Lalu had to face agitations from students, teachers, government employees and various caste groups. Presence of a number of criminals in the ruling party was talked about openly. Bureaucracy was demoralized. Various political parties made moves to destabilise him. Caste rallies like Kushwaha rally in June 1993 and Kurmi Chetna rally and Dalit–Adivasi Chetna rally in February 1994 were organized.

In conventional terms, murders and riots among others are considered important indices of decline in governance. Since Nitish Kumar took over the reins in 2005, there has been a slight decrease in the total number of murders as well as its contributions to the all-India figures (Table 7.9).

But the riots figures and their contribution to all India figures remain negative (Tables 7.10 and 7.12). During 2013–15, the rates have in fact increased quite a lot. Murders and riots per million population are another measure of governance but the performance of Bihar under Nitish Kumar is fact from satisfactory despite better performance in terms of other indicators of governance such as better delivery of services and growth. (See Table 7.11 and Figures 7.1 and 7.2.)

Riots and murders are of course very important figures in measuring governance but not enough. Malhotra (2014) has provided a more comprehensive index called ROLI which is a composite variable of some other composite variables (Malhotra, 2014, p. 159). In terms of Malhotra’s ROLI, Bihar experienced progressive decline between 1981 and 2001, and showed some improvement in 2011. Bihar performance index was as follows: 0.153 in 1981; 0.181 in 1991; 0.081 in 2001 and 0.115 in 2011. The corresponding all India figures were respectively: 0.125; 0.115; 0.115 and 0.112. For Bihar, the index of 0.081 in 2001 is very significant in the sense that it records the tipping point of the first decade of Lalu Prasad’s regime (1990–2005). The Policy Effectiveness Index (PEI) of Malhotra (2014) is another comprehensive and composite index of measurement of governance.

Table 7.9: Incidence of murders in Bihar.

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