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The murder of businessman Gopal Khemka in the heart of Patna last week has brought back the focus on law and order in the city and whoever can assure that will win later this year
Nearly 20 kilometres long and built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore, Ganga Bridge is India’s longest cable-stayed bridge. (News18)
It is surely a ‘Badalta Hua Patna’—from a new swanky airport to India’s longest cable-stayed bridge over the Ganga, and a fast-upcoming metro. These are changes in Patna that few had imagined even a decade ago. But as the recent murder of a businessman in the heart of Patna shows, some things may not have changed. Law and order are still the elephant in the room when it comes to the upcoming Bihar elections.
A new airport terminal greets one now on landing in Patna. It is a far cry from the cramped and untidy airport that Patna had for years. The new terminal inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month is worth Rs 1,200 crore, boasts of modern aerobridges and modern passenger facilities and can cater to about one crore passengers a year. For an average Bihari, the airport is a pleasant surprise and a symbol of pride. “Delhi wale se bhi achha hai na (this is better than the Delhi airport, right),” a Patna couple asks us.
Bridge After Decades
Our second stop was the new Ganga bridge that was inaugurated last month by CM Nitish Kumar. This is no ordinary bridge. Nearly 20 kilometres long and built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore, it is India’s longest cable-stayed bridge. The first six-km stretch which is operational now is the sole connectivity from Patna to Raghopur, the stronghold of the Lalu Prasad family. Former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav is the current MLA from Raghopur, and his parents Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi have represented the seat too in the assembly.
But for over the last seven decades, one had to take a boat on the Ganga to reach Raghopur as there was no bridge over the river to reach the area. Tejashwi Yadav himself took the boat many a times to highlight the apathy being faced by locals. But the new bridge is now a reality, and locals see it as a big gift. Many throng here in the evening to take selfies. “Roads and bridges have been made. But nothing else. Voting does not happen on issue of development, but caste. We will vote for RJD,” two local youngsters on the bridge say.
Metro and Flyovers
The ‘Ganga Kinare’ ring road in Patna is a long drive besides the Ganga and gives one a glimpse over the various bridges made over the vast river. Inside the city also, a network of flyovers and a major hospital has emerged. The big highlight is the upcoming Metro and a six-km stretch is expected to be inaugurated by August 15 by the prime minister. Work is on at frantic pace in Patna to complete the metro stretch. But this means that internal roads in Patna are a mess—dug-up and incessant rains make them waterlogged.
“The main roads of Patna are smooth but go a bit inside and you will find the mess. Two days back, I fell with my scooty inside an open manhole on a water-logged road…of what use is such development?” a youngster having Bihar’s famous litti-chokha on Budh road says. Another local says that while infrastructure has improved in Patna, things are pretty much the same in villages. “Bihar is not just Patna. It is a very big state. If you go inside the villages, you will see the poor suffer,” another local says.
A group of elders in Patna, however, told CNN-NEWS18 that electricity and water has changed the fortune of rural Bihar. “Ab toh hamare yahan gai bhi pankhe mein so rahi hai (even our cows are sleeping under a fan in villages),” a local elder told us. This group said Nitish Kumar remains a popular chief minister despite him changing political camps many a time. They point to the jungle-raj under the Lalu Prasad regime to say Bihar won’t ever go back to the old ages. “Saanp ka beta sapola hi hota hai,” they said on the Lalu family.
Murder in Patna
The murder of businessman Gopal Khemka in the heart of Patna last week has, however, put the NDA on the back foot. The murder seems to have been orchestrated from inside Beur jail by a gangster, bringing Bihar’s infamous jail-crime-supari (contract killing) nexus to the fore yet again. The opposition, RJD and Congress, are now targeting the NDA government over the failing law and order situation, even in a posh area of Patna. They are ironically asking if this is jungle-raj under Nitish Kumar and countering NDA’s narrative.
NDA ally Chirag Paswan also expressed his discomfort over the law-and-order situation. “If a murder like this is happening in Patna, imagine what is happening in the villages. The way crime has increased in Bihar and the manner in which law and order has collapsed is concerning,” Paswan said.
The bottom line in Bihar is that it is a fight between two big alliances based on caste considerations and development is a strong narrative working for the NDA. But crime, law, and order remain the big elephant in the room. People want peace and security first. Whoever can assure that will win later this year.
Aman Sharma, Executive Editor – National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office….Read More
Aman Sharma, Executive Editor – National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office…. Read More
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