Interview/ Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary, CPI(ML) Liberation
What do you think is the biggest issue in this election?
Q/ I think change is the biggest issue this time. Even in 2020, Bihar had indicated its desire for a change in government, but that didn’t happen then. So this is a long-pending, long-awaited agenda for Bihar.
The demand for change is powered by all the issues people face—unemployment, poverty, migration, lack of housing, collapse of governance, massive corruption at every level and the nexus that Nitish Kumar has created. The actual coalition ruling Bihar is not the NDA coalition, it is a coalition of crime, corruption and police. Police officers and mafia gangs are behind it. Bihar badly needs freedom from this.
Q/ Bihar has traditionally been a fertile ground for left politics. What makes left candidates win here?
It is the present and the dream of the future that drives the left forward. Our decades of struggle have built credibility among the people. Currently, we have 11 MLAs who present their report cards to the people, both inside and outside the assembly. At a time when there is little transparency and accountability in politics, we are trying to institutionalise both. This is the left agenda—the credible role of the left in defending democracy, which keeps us relevant.
Q/ The NDA emphasises on Nitish Kumar’s 20-year tenure and compares it with the Lalu Prasad era, using terms like “jungle raj”. Does Tejashwi Yadav carry a historical burden?
Absolutely not. People do not live in history. History is there to learn lessons from, not to dictate present action. Today, people in Bihar live in the present and fight for the future. If there was jungle raj in the 1990s, what we have today is ‘maha jungle raj’.
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Q/ What message could emerge from Bihar for the rest of the country?
We hope Bihar sets an example. Bihar has been singled out for SIR experiment. There is a massive attack on universal adult franchise and on the Constitution’s commitment to every citizen. People are watching Bihar closely, to see whether it follows a path like Maharashtra or Jharkhand in rejecting the BJP.
Q/ Will SIR affect voters on the ground?
SIR will have resonance. Voters are being disenfranchised—maybe about 10 per cent of people.