HVK Archives: Bhandari drives across Patna with head held high
Bhandari drives across Patna with head held high - The Indian Express
Ashis Chakrabarti
()
September 24, 1998
Title: Bhandari drives across Patna with head held high
Author: Ashis Chakrabarti
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 24, 1998
Only a boundary wall separates the two warring camps in Bihar
-- the office premises of the BJP and the ruling Rashtriya
Janata Dal on Birchand Patel Marg here. The scene at the two
offices symbolise the portents of change on Bihar's political
state.
Last night, a powerful halogen lamp near the entrance lit up
the entire BJP office. Upbeat party leaders and workers sailed
in and out, savouring victory. Next door, the RJD office was a
picture of gloom and desolation.
All the lamps on the office lawns were out. And though the
lights in the rooms of party office-bearers were on, they were
so dim that one could hardly see them from the road. There
were no leaders and none of the crowd that usually hangs
around there.
The road outside -- Birchand Patel Marg -- was almost dark.
That's not new, as more than half the streets of Patna are
always dark. According to one estimate, Patna requires about
6,000 electric bulbs for its roads, but the municipal
corporation does not have funds to provide half of them.
Surprisingly, even Anne Marg, where the Chief Minister's
residence is situated, was dark and desolate. A few yards
away, outside the closed gate of the Raj Bhavan, RJD
supporters sat in a dharna, blasting Governor Sunder Singh
Bhandari for the ``rape of democracy''.
When Bhandari returned from New Delhi this morning, the change
in scenario was palpable. At the airport, there were
bureaucrats welcoming him with bouquets. As he drove to Raj
Bhavan, he noticed, presumably with great satisfaction, a
different Bihar bandh.
Although shops, offices and educational institutions were
closed, cycle and autorickshaws plied freely and in large
numbers. More significantly, there was little of the tension
that usually marks an RJD-sponsored bandh.
Policemen who usually look the other way in times of trouble
were a changed lot. At several places in the city, they were
seen beating up RJD workers for creating trouble.
Bhandari went a step further. He drove through parts of the
city, accompanied by Director-General of Police K A Jacob, to
Rajendra Nagar to attend a function to honour poet Dinkar.
Holding his head high, the Governor looked on, as a handful of
RJD workers showed him black flags but did little else. ``He
ignored the demonstration totally,'' said one Raj Bhavan
official.
The talk in political circles here is that RJD activists were
reined in from creating terror on the streets by none other
than Laloo Yadav himself. He sent word from New Delhi that the
Governor must not be given another handle to beat the state
government with. So, while the RJD MLAs and their allies
pilloried the Governor and demanded his recall in an Assembly
resolution and shouted slogans against the ``Atal-Advani-
Bhandari conspiracy'' outside the Assembly, they were almost
invisible on the streets.
The real reason for the rather quiet reaction seems to lie in
the confusion that the issue of Vananchal has created across
the rank and file of almost all parties. The two big political
strokes have come simultaneously. The threat to the Rabri Devi
Government has followed the threat of Bihar's bifurcation.
Emotionally, the state seems to be already divided. Today's
bandh call hardly had an effect in south Bihar where
Vananchal, and not the survival of the RJD government, is the
people's concern. Whether or not the next few days and weeks
see parties, particularly the BJP, engaging in horse-trading
for an alternative government, South Bihar will have no
political agenda but the separate State of Vananchal.
And, the other parts of Bihar -- north and central -- will
chart out its future political course as a reaction to
Vananchal.
Naturally, RJD leaders, who passed an Assembly resolution last
weekend opposing the new state, harp on the deep division of
Bihar's politics and society. State BJP president Nand Kishore
Yadav and general secretary Sarju Rai were at pains to argue
that there was no such thing. However, the division showed up
in the Assembly today when the House discussed the floods in
north Bihar and the drought in the south.
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