Bihar never ceases to surprise us. On one hand, the recent inauguration of the new Nalanda University campus in Rajgir by Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminds us about the glorious past of the state as the home to one of the greatest learning institutions of the ancient time. On the other hand, the news of 15 bridges collapsing in a span of just four weeks points to a system reeling under administrative incompetence and corruption. The emergence of septuagenarian chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar as the kingmaker in the national politics after BJP fell short of a majority after the Lok Sabha election and sanction of Rs. 58,900 crores in the budget for Bihar have made the state a key discussion point about the current politics as well.
Therefore, Broken Promises - Caste, Crime and Politics in Bihar written by first generation entrepreneur and politician Mrityunjay Sharma couldn't have hit stands at a better time. The book adopts a truly engaging storytelling which meticulously captures the dark phase of the once prosperous state. While the book talks briefly about the major socio-political changes right from the birth of the state in 1912 till the 1990, it focuses largely on the 'Jungle Raj' period which denotes that gloomy phase of 1990 to 2005. In this phase, the government with charismatic leader Lalu Prasad Yadav at the help as chief minister traded development for social empowerment ('Vikas nahi, samman chahiye'). The author has made a sincere attempt to make sense of why people from Bihar are usually apologetic about being from the state by tracing its chequered history.
Sharma’s introduction on the book jacket boasts of his sound academic credentials from institutes such as BIT Mesra and XLRI, Jamshedpur and his diverse experience from corporate to working with an ex-Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Raman Singh. While the book often steers towards Sharma’s own life experiences living in Bihar during the era, he doesn’t let his current political affiliation colour his depiction and analysis in the book. The author, shuffles effortlessly between 1990s and post-independence era in the first few chapters to capture some milestones like Total Revolution spearheaded by Jayaprakash Narayan popularly known as JP, rise of prominent leaders from that movement such as Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, George Fernandes, Sushil Kumar Modi, Sharad Yadav and evolving caste dynamics in politics, setting the stage to dive into the 'the rise of Lalu'.
From that point onwards, Sharma never misses a beat with this engrossing storytelling. Lalu Prasad Yadav's evolution to 'secularism's new poster boy' and messiah of the marginalised, his intent to break the hegemony of bureaucrats as well as his attempts at caste polarisation to consolidate his own vote bank are narrated with proper build-up, context and interesting anecdotes. Sample this - "A picture that would often appear in newspapers would have Lalu sitting on his lawn with his feet on a centre table with bureaucrats lined up in front of him." Sharma goes on to explain, "This was a powerful symbol with class as well as caste connotation. His voters loved such images, and Lalu knew that well."
In a chapter aptly titled Balkanisation of Bihar, Sharma takes a deep dive into the rivalries of Bahubalis and parallel governments run by chieftains such as Pappu Yadav, Anand Mohan, Shahabuddin, Munna Shukla in various parts of Bihar. What's politics in Bihar without Bahubalis anyway?
The Chapter 'The Scam That Shook India' encapsulates the Fodder scam and ensuing downfall of Lalu, who had started looking almost invincible by the mid-90s. What followed after Lalu's resignation from the post of the chief minister, appointment of his wife Rabri Devi as the chief minister and notoriety of Lalu's infamous brothers-in-law, Sadhu and Subhash Yadav, Bihar's further slip into administrative inertia, caste wars, and more bloodshed. The book dedicates a chapter on unique crime industries in Bihar which flourished due to unemployment, a non-existent law-and-order and police-criminal nexus. Sharma narrated a humorous incident in which robbers let go a person after finding Rs. 5,000 with him and requested him not to lodge a complaint with the police station. Because, "the robbers explained that if the policemen came to know of it, they would come to collect their own share of Rs. 10,000."
Bihar is a universal enigma, for writers, for politicians, for historians, for the electorate and the general populace. To understand Bihar is to understand the foundation of Indian social structures and to understand its journey is to understand the decades of changing socio-politics. Authors like Shankarshan Thakur and Santosh Singh have gone on to explain this enigma in their own inimitable styles. Mrityunjay Sharma’s current book definitely adds to the rich literature of socio-politics of India and not just Bihar. The book reads like an engaging crime thriller only to hit you hard at times when you realise that it is not a work of fiction. Broken Promises falls in the list of must read and surpasses every recent non-fiction in terms of its coherent style and how it grips the reader from start to end.
