Will Gen Z Respond to Call of Change in Bihar

Dole outs are not cutting much ice with the voters in Bihar. Social justice also failed to move the marginal up the economic scale. Twelve pass outs amongst them are around five percent. So, the reservation has also not benefited then optimally.

The twenty-year rule of Nitish Kumar has shiny infrastructures to showcase his kind of development. People are happy with them as their travel time has reduced from half to quarter in the past two decades. The Modi government at the centre has run several luxurious fast trains to give a feeling of an advancing Bihar. But a very miniscule percentage of people have the spare money after routine expenses for indulgence.

The world over Gen Z wants secure employment and a corruption free state system. Frustration with the rent-seeking politicians led to rebellion first in Bangladesh, then in Sri Lanka and recently in Nepal.

The African continent in the past few months has also seen upheavals in several countries. In Kenya, Madagascar and Morocco. The Gen Z in these countries attacked the centres of power. In Madagascar, the president fled the country when the Gen Z turned the heat on him.

Young voters in Botswana unseated the party from power ruling the country since independence. In South Africa, the National Congress for the first time since independence got less than 50 percent of the votes in the last election as they failed to fulfil the aspirations of the Gen Z for employment and prosperity. The majority of jobs are in the gig sector where there are no security of jobs and a secure future after their bodies would fail to do strenuous work.

Bihar is going to poll in this dark global and national scenario. Politicians have so far deluded people by promising one utopia after another.

When people are so desperate for succour that they believe every wild promise. Politicians fudge figures to take them to the dreamland like giving one core job in the five years or a government job to each family within twenty months of coming back to power or ensuring a minimum income of Rs. 20,000 to each family and preventing migration from the state within a year. NDA, Magathbandhan and Jan Suraj have promised to the Biharis.

Bihar has been crazy for government jobs for a long time. As there are no opportunities in the state for jobs in the non-government sector, every youth spends the prime of their careers pursuing government jobs. But the state cannot fulfil their aspirations as the openings are in lakhs while crores youth want it. They know it very well that only a few of them would have it yet the majority of youths are after it.

Owners of coaching institutes in Patna are taking in millions on the pursuit of the mirage of government jobs by the youths in Bihar. They whet their desire by showcasing a few successes to them. The youths in the state find themselves in a bind. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.  In this cul-de-sac scenario their only hope is government jobs.

The wily politicians exploit this there-is-no-alternative (TINA) factor and make wild promises. RJD says he provided five lakh jobs in 17 months when he was deputy chief minister in the Nitish government.

Jan Suraaj founder has come out with a new formula to deal with the unemployment in the state. He says government jobs are not the solution. Self-employment is the way out with the government providing subsidised capital. Nitish believes in freebies laced with the government jobs utopia.

Is Bihar resigned to its fate crushing poverty? Or politicians have over the years lulled into believing that there is no better world beyond what they have. People say Biharis have the sharpest sense of politics. But their fatalist approach belies it. They discuss at every nook and corner their hearts’ content but refuse to collect and force the hands of the politicians to bring in changes in their lot.

The Bihari politicians have years have perfected their formula of winning elections with money, muscle manoeuvre that they care the least for them.

Will the Gen Z in Bihar use their vote this time around to strike a new path or the alliance money muscle will win? The minds have rebelled. Whether the hands will push ahead. Or the state is waiting for an upside-down jolt?