RIGHT TRACK: His emphasis on development over politics has won Kumar new friends

A couple of days before the Union Cabinet decided that the newly created East-Central Railway zone headquartered at Hajipur, Bihar, would stay, Union Railways Minister Nitish Kumar was in Patna. On a day when frequent power failures left much of the state capital in the dark, Kumar sat alone in his room sweating while scanning papers under the flickering light of a candle. Outside, a contingent of Samata Party workers waited for an audience with the minister. One of the party faithful then walked into the room and, in an obvious effort to curry favour with the minister, blamed RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav for the recurring power failures in the state. Kumar was livid. "There is no point in chanting Lalooji's name every time. We talk too much politics. We have to change our mindsets, concentrate more on development and less on politics," he told the visitor, a trifle irritated.

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OTHER STORIES RELATED TO NATION Divide and Rule

Telling someone in Patna not to talk of divisive politics is akin to asking someone in Chennai to forego his morning tiffin. But in the Bihar capital, surprisingly, even politicians seem to be listening when Kumar speaks. The change was visible everywhere as politicians cutting across party and caste lines rallied round Kumar for the first time on the issue of the new railway zone. Even Laloo, Kumar's bitter rival, admitted that though the new railway zone was a "small step" by Kumar, it would help Bihar take a big leap. "The Centre has always discriminated against Bihar," said Laloo. "But this issue has sent a clear signal to it that Bihar will no longer tolerate injustice. We congratulate Nitish Kumar and all political leaders stand united."

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BONANZA FOR BIHAR As Union surface transport minister, Kumar got 1,065 km of roads in Bihar included in the national highways network. As agriculture minister, he set up an ICAR office in Patna and three research centres. He also revived Operation Flood milk project and was behind the success of the Patna Dairy corporation. As railways minister, he brought projects worth Rs 1,800 crore into Bihar.

Adversaries like Ram Vilas Paswan too are less critical now. It was Paswan who as railways minister announced the creation of a new zone headquartered in Hajipur, which incidentally is his constituency. Till recently, Paswan never tired of aiming barbs at Kumar. Last week, he organised a rally to hail the minister's initiative and the Cabinet decision. And workers of Paswan's Lok Janashakti Party, the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) marched through the streets of Patna expressing solidarity with Kumar's agenda for development. Laloo gushed: "Till today, nobody cared for Bihar. Nobody listened to us. Now there is no stopping us."

GOING SOFT: Even Paswan praised Kumar

This new assertion of Bihari determination was enough to make politicians across the border in West Bengal see red. "The Cabinet decision to split the railway zone is nothing but surrender to Bihar's blackmail," roared Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee (see box). P.K. Sinha, state Samata Party spokesperson and Kumar's confidant, says the minister has finally succeeded in giving Bihar a new identity in national politics. He was perhaps alluding to the fact that though Bihar has always been well-represented in the Union Cabinet, it had no unified voice or a lobby that would look after its interests in Delhi because of the highly personalised and politicised agenda of its leaders. On the other hand, states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have resorted to pressure tactics, even blackmail, to have their way with the Centre.

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LONELY LADY Mamata's political isolation is complete FECKLESS: Mamata has thrown one tantrum too many The Trinamool Congress leaders met at party President Mamata Banerjee's Kolkata residence on July 31 in a sombre mood. Not only had the Centre ruled out reversing the new railway zone plan, but there was no "face saver" either. The Trinamool reluctantly plans an agitation, with Mamata alleging that Railways Minister Nitish Kumar has been "rewarded" for a cover-up of the Godhra tragedy. It is almost the last straw for the BJP. NDA partners feel governance has prevailed over political filibustering. "We want Mamata to be with us, but we have not yielded on policy," says BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu. Sensing that the decision would not be revised, the Centre asked Mamata to draft an economic package comprising railway projects, roads and bridges and sops to West Bengal's coal mines. It also offered to increase the Trinamool's presence in the Union Ministry. But Mamata's last-minute missive, which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee outlined to the Cabinet on July 29, asked only for a review of railway zones or reverting Dhanbad to Eastern Railways. Vajpayee tested the waters, but Kumar argued that 98 per cent of Dhanbad's freight went to Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh. Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie pointed out that Mamata had always opposed reforms and Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Sharad Yadav, Sushma Swaraj and Jagmohan felt the Government should stand up to her. "Mamata's politics now is bereft of rationality," says a negotiator. Even Trinamool MPs are aghast at her comparison of the rail realignment with Bengal's partition. The party's protest on August 7, the day in 1905 when Rabrindranath Tagore opposed the imperial plan to divide Bengal, may strike an emotive chord. But that may not be enough to lead the party out of political isolation. -Rajeev Deshpande

Former Congress chief minister Jagannath Mishra recalls raising the issue of the state's development with the Centre way back in 1982 and opposing the "politics of blackmail" that West Bengal's leaders practised. "I was projected as a rebel and quietly shown the door. No one supported me, not even my own partymen. But this time Nitish has united everyone. This is good sign for Bihar," he says.

According to Shaibal Gupta of the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute, the bifurcation of Bihar and the creation of Jharkhand in 2000 not only gave a jolt to the people, creating the yearning for a new identity and desire for economic development but also give birth to "Bihari sub-nationalism". Says Gupta: "The popular perception about Bihar is negative. Everyone who lived outside Bihar hated the state and everything that was associated with it."

The BJP got a taste of this Bihari sub-nationalism when the party office in Patna was attacked by activists of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha after C.P. Thakur was forced to resign as Union health minister. Like Kumar, Thakur too had taken up the cause of Bihar in Delhi's corridors of power. There's nothing to suggest that Thakur's Bihar-centric approach alone was responsible for his ouster but that hasn't deterred Kumar from pursuing his development agenda for Bihar. Gupta says that just as Laloo became the catalyst for social change through Mandalisation, Kumar has triggered Bihari sub-nationalism with his stand on the railway zone issue.

Not much is known about how the 50-year-old Kumar, who holds a degree in electrical engineering, landed up in the rough and tumble of politics. Like many of his contemporaries from Bihar, he was held under misa during the Jayaprakash Narayan-led Bihar movement and later the Emergency, following which he joined the Janata Party along with Laloo and others and later the Janata Dal. But he was to soon split with his good friend Laloo and float his own Samata Party with the help of former chief minister Abdul Ghafoor and George Fernandes. As the Samata could not make a dent in Laloo's vote bank in the 1995 assembly elections, the party joined hands with the BJP. Those who know him well say Kumar, while being warm and affectionate, can also be stubborn. That perhaps explains why when he finally got a chance to rule Bihar, his government fell before he could spell out its agenda-a victim of NDA's internal politics.

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MAMATA-ISMS MAY 1998: Suspends support to Vajpayee after panchayat poll violence in Bengal. JAN 1999: Threatens to walk out of ministry after the Staines' murder. SEPT 2000: Resigns as minister after petrol prices go up. MARCH 2001: Post-Tehelka scandal Mamata walks out of Cabinet and NDA. Eyes coming Bengal polls. JULY 2002: Agitates on new rail zones. Causes Bihar-Bengal battle. ... AND THE EFFECT An early warning signal: the NDA regime was only two months old and Mamata had flown off the handle. A silly stunt that convinced nobody. She stayed put in the cabinet. Confirmed status as queen of populism. Was back in Cabinet in a week. Mamata proves an unreliable ally for Vajpayee. Ties up with Congress and gets thrashed by the Left in Bengal. Government sticks to stand. Mamata makes wild charges, is friendless.

It is a much chastened Kumar who now occupies a berth in the Vajpayee Cabinet. And unlike many of his colleagues, he is not given to either talking big or making tall claims. But in his inimitable way, he has been at work. As Union surface transport minister in 1999, Kumar got 1,065 km of roads in Bihar included in the national highways network, thus ensuring that the Centre took up the responsibility of building and maintaining the roads.

Later, as Union agriculture minister, he set up a regional office of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in Patna and three major research centres to study crops like litchis and pulses. He revived the Operation Flood milk project in Bihar too. He then scripted the success story of the Patna Dairy Development Corporation, the only profit-making undertaking in Bihar. Kumar also set in motion the concept of "agriculture clinics" to train and engage agriculture graduates to guide and work with farmers. Over 1,000 such clinics are now in the process of being established across the country.

As railways minister, Kumar brought projects worth Rs 1,800 crore to Bihar, including a Rs 650-crore rail bridge across the Ganga in Patna. Many of these projects were conceived of or initiated during Paswan's tenure as railways minister, but Kumar has an explanation. "I don't believe in announcing and forgetting projects," he says. "Projects are meant to be implemented and not for politics. Bhashans (speeches) alone can't change the face of Bihar or bring prosperity to the people."

Economically and socially, Bihar has been a basket case, and the division of the state and creation of the resource-rich Jharkhand only heightened the fears of the people. Kumar and other MPs from the state met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and demanded a special package of Rs 1,79,000 crore for the revival of Bihar. The state Assembly passed a resolution seeking a package of Rs 1,80,000 crore, though it was later whittled down to Rs 40,000 crore. The Centre remained unmoved.

Last week, while Bihar was celebrating the Union Cabinet's green signal to the new railway zone, news arrived from Delhi that Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had shelved the Rs 12,500-crore development fund for backward states. Bihar was to get Rs 4,000 crore over the next five years as part of this package. "What are the nda ministers from Bihar doing about the special package?" Laloo demanded to know. Kumar is unperturbed, for he has the answer. He knows that Bihar can once again bargain and get its share-if politicians in the state show the same spirit of unity that they did last week.