Apart from being new growth miracle,construction ,service sector boom and shoots of new positivity in Bihar, that can of course be lesson for the rest of the india. but to my mind, the most powerful change that is underway in Bihar is the change in electoral behavior.in one of his most encouraging and futuristic books 'the future of India' Bimal jalan lamented that it is quite ironic that in country like India where even basic amenities are not fulfilled,voting take place primarily on the peripheral issues like caste and religion that have very low developmental relation. this is indeed the state of the affair in state as well as national and even at local level election.
in middle of all this, the first phase of assembly election in Bihar went quite peacefully, that indeed is a great news specially in the state where elections are conditioned by large scale violence, rampant booth capturing and other problems leading to many rounds of by- polls.
this election is crucially contested on the issue of development, people's choice of parties may be different but the core issue over which parties are seeking mandate is same that is development.what plethora of election reform measures could not achieve was achieved by the nitish government effort to make development a core issue and installing them in people Psyche.if it becomes a national issue then fight and caste based polarization will greatly reduce, that will eventually help to reform the political system as well. development does not discriminate between people neither does the poverty but caste and politics does.
it remains to be seen how much is learnt by other states and political parties from this novel experience.
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