Plain-speak: Why Sena is foraying into Bihar

The contest is between what the voters had as migrants benefited, and what they have felt in Bihar itself. The Shiv Sena trying to spoil the party for NDA, Mahesh Vijapurkar comments on the Bihar elections

There are two reasons why the Shiv Sena is throwing its hat in Bihar’s electoral ring, intending to contest 150 of the 249 Assembly constituencies. One, reconfirming that though a partner in the NDA, both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, it was not entirely with them. The re-emphasis is a part of the one-upmanship with the Bharatiya Janata Party, as part of their competitive intimacy.
Two, as per Sena’s Sanjay Raut, MP, and Saamana editor, it would be a mix of Hindutva, poverty alleviation, and employment creation. The last two are laudable. It takes forward the oft-expressed view of Uddhav Thackeray, Sena chief, that solution to Maharashtra’s in-migration was elsewhere, not in Maharashtra. If Bihar did well, its sons need not come to Mumbai for livelihoods.
How much of ice it would cut in Bihar is not hard to guess. It carries a baggage the Biharis can easily smell from a distance, and repudiate the party. Notwithstanding occasional strong denials, the baggage is the Sena’s sons of the soil plank, which has left a few Biharis in Mumbai with a bloody nose. Such a denial has come forth this time too. Sena wants to foray there because, “some politicians of Bihar are more interested in happenings in Mumbai and making noises about atrocities on migrants than actually doing something for development of (their) state”.
Uddhav Thackeray was not far wrong about the solutions to in-migration to be found elsewhere. For instance, a better implementation of the Centre’s job guarantee programme by the Nitish Kumar-led government, and several infrastructure projects, which bolstered Bihar’s growth rate, ensured a decline in out-migration from Bihar. Punjab’s farmers found that the tap from Bihar was drying up and stood at railway stations to offer better rates to the migrant labour.
An India Today report in 2013 India Today had this to say: “Punjab – India’s grain bowl – has started experiencing severe labour crunch as the paddy sowing season has officially started. The farmers have been scouring railway stations and bus stands across the state in anticipation of the arrival of migrant labours and luring them with high wages.”
More than half a million used to arrive every season from UP and Bihar, though it’s a slowdown of Bihari migrants. The state’s officials claim about 1.5-2 million have stopped migrating. It does not matter if the farmers in Punjab have to find labour by higher wages, but there they can opt for labour-saving devices, which is already on the uptick.
Down to Earth had quoted Indrajit Roy, an Oxford University scholar about how migrants once preferred major cities – like Mumbai – for jobs but found living costs high with little to send money back home. However, with an infrastructure boost in Bihar itself, many potential migrants prefer to remain there. Migration has not halted, but it is an intra-state now. The rural unskilled instead move to Patna, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur.
However, with Narendra Modi’s development promises and the Biharis awareness of what Gujarat has – there can be a huge debate about if it has or not, but a rozi-roti issue is easier there – which is up against Nitish Kumar’s track. Those gains may be obliterated because of the alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav, perhaps the most non-development-minded politician in the country. The contest is easily between what the voters had seen as migrants, and benefited, and what they have felt in Bihar itself. Therefore, what role can Shiv Sena have in Bihar?
Sena’s intent is to muddy the waters to the extent it can for the NDA, and more importantly, show the BJP that though an ally, it would not rest content with mere prickly conduct within the local alliance. It wants to emphasise its quarrelsome nature, accentuate the one-upmanship by playing ducks and drakes in another region where it is least expected to foray.
In Bihar, Sena is known as the party which troubles its people who migrate to Mumbai region for jobs. Whenever the locals in Maharashtra feel threatened, the north Indian in Maharashtra is referred to as “Bihari”. However, there are less Bihari’s in Mumbai region as per Census records, than migrants from Uttar Pradesh are. Sena, and MNS, have made “Bihari” the metaphor for a Hindi-speaking migrant.

Mahesh Vijapurkar