Dear Nitish,
A Non Resident Bihari here.
I hope it doesn’t sound downright funny anymore to call yourself a Bihari, which surely was the case till you didn’t become the Chief Minister of Bihar. You know, one of my fellow Bihari friends used to answer “IIT Kharagpur” whenever someone in our business school asked him where he came from.
I haven’t talked to him for some time now, we live in different cities; you know Biharis are everywhere. But I hope now he says “Patna” unapologetically if asked the same question. You can take pride in this change of attitude in him as you symbolized a ‘change’ in Bihar when you won the elections five years ago.
But I have heard that these days you are taking pride in returning money given to your government for rehabilitation of flood victims. Guess your Bihari pride was hurt when some people considered close to that Modi chap issued an advertisement that allegedly boasted of some money given to the poor perennially drowning Biharis living in the Kosi area.
It was an insult to the poor people of Bihar you thought, maybe it was.
It was in papers today
This morning when I thought of writing this letter to you, I picked up my morning newspaper. For some funny reason, I buy The Times of India, New Delhi edition. And guess what, on the front page, just below the masthead on the left side, there was a quote attributed to The Bible:
“A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.”
I am not saying anything. This is what The Bible says, and this is what the editors of apparently the largest selling English daily chose to publish today morning. I hope you get the message. And I don’t think you will disagree with a biblical quote; else your secular credentials could go for a toss.
That’s why I believe that all this talk of Bihari pride being hurt is bullshit. Because you are a prudent man and not a fool, as The Bible says. But I’m not sure if you are being prudent as well in your plans.
In fact I’m not sure what your plans are.
Are you thinking of impressing the Bihari Muslims? Or are you thinking of impressing Congress?
Yes, most of the Muslims, whether Biharis or otherwise, don’t like Narendra Modi, just as most of the witty people don’t like Rakhi Sawant. This, in turn, has given rise to a phenomenon, where some people criticize Modi to impress the Muslims, just as many people make jokes on Rakhi Sawant to impress the wit-loving audiences.
But as you would well appreciate, real wit goes beyond Rakhi Sawant, just as real secularism goes beyond Narendra Modi. The witty people realize this difference, do you think the Muslims don’t? I leave it upon you to say what you think about the Muslims.
And Bihari Muslims? They have been so unfortunate. At the time of partition, many of them couldn’t travel to Pakistan because it was too far off and hence they went to Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. They were never treated as one of them for obvious reasons. In fact they were seen as Urdu speaking agents of the West Pakistan.
During the Bangladeshi war of Independence, they sided with the Pakistanis and many of them are still languishing in refugee camps for almost 40 years now, repenting that mistake and waiting for Pakistan to take them ‘home’. Pakistan has shown no interest in doing so. Bangladesh has submitted no dossiers to this effect. They are neither Pakistani nor Bangladeshi now. They are still called Bihari Muslims.
Why I’m saying this? Because I believe that most Muslims in Bihar realize that their identity is built more around being a Bihari than being a Muslim, right since independence. I don’t know how much has it changed now, but when Biharis are beaten up in Mumbai, nobody asks their caste or religion.
Maybe being a Non Resident Bihari, I’m missing something. All the best if you think you can impress Bihari Muslims through this act.
But don’t tell me you are trying to impress Congress. There is no point dude! Even Congress is not trying to impress itself there, else why has Rahul Gandhi not eaten litti-chokha at a Bihari dalit’s home till now? And Rahul is smart. He doesn’t want to bite more than he can chew. Maybe you could learn one or two things from him.
I can understand if you want to break up from BJP and for that you are accusing that Modi chap for having behaved in an uncultured way. My friend also accused his girl friend of hitting on his younger brother before breaking up. Basically he was seeing a new girl, who he thought was sexier. But Congress is your new girl in Bihar? Serious? What’s so sexy about it?
Dude, Congress has even lost its size-zero figure that it maintained in Bihar during Lalu Yadav days. Now it wins a few seats, but yet not so much that you could be smitten by its curviness or buxomness. Furthermore, it doesn’t yet have a face, forget beautiful or ugly, or even a voice there. I wonder what you fell for.
But again, being a Non Resident Bihari, maybe I’m missing something.
Also, I have learnt that the five crore rupees that you returned was an ‘unspent’ amount from the relief and rehabilitation budget, even as news reports claim that people are still living without a roof in the Kosi river belt area. Why was those five crores not spent on building roofs? That doesn’t impress anybody you see. And now that such news reports are out, it seems like your decision of returning the money was a self goal. FIFA world cup fever, eh?
Well, it doesn’t matter if you snub Modi or dump BJP, after all Naveen Patnaik not far away in Orissa demonstrated that one could do it successfully and to a good effect, but don’t lose your USP. You symbolized ‘change’ – in attitude, in politics, in news reports coming out of Bihar – don’t let that change for worse.
Yours truly,
A Non Resident Bihari.
Possibly Related News:
- Furious at suggestions, Nitish Kumar bans facebook in Bihar
- More pictures of Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi together found
- An open letter to Shoaib Malik (hope this one is delivered)
- An open letter to Lalit Modi (please tell us the truth before you go)
- An open letter to Sania Mirza (returned by postal department)
Corrent to point the issues. Nitish Kumar is trying hard, history will tell.
in the last 8 years of misrule nitish kumar has destroyed the bihar.so much money he exorted from centre that if not looted by nitish and accumlated in his swiss account each family of bihar would have got one car.so much money he got from center.and in reply what he gave.Not a single industry in bihar agains modi lacks of industry in his regime.only we are made chutiy__aas by paid news of development in every media including cyber media he published with the help of looted money meant for development of bihar
It’s right Nitish kumar do not think about Bihar people but always think self, because progress of Bihar is not important for Nitish Kumar, Important for Nitish Kumar is Rajniti advertise
Why return my Flood relief money ?
Pls Give me answer Minister sahab
in the last 8 years of misrule nitish kumar has destroyed the bihar.so much money he exorted from centre that if not looted by nitish and accumlated in his swiss account each family of bihar would have got one car.so much money he got from center.and in reply what he gave.Not a single industry in bihar agains modi lacks of industry in his regime.only we are made chutiy__aas by paid news of development in every media including cyber media he published with the help of looted money meant for development of bihr
Nitish Kumar has crossed all limits of decency, especially by returning the money to Gujarat.
Just speaks for this dangerous trend of regionalism in the country, Nitish Kumar is no better then other stupid Psuedo’s in the country.
Faking News this is the best SERIOUS article I have read on the issue.
in the last 8 years of misrule nitish kumar has destroyed the bihar.so much money he exorted from centre that if not looted by nitish and accumlated in his swiss account each family of bihar would have got one car.so much money he got from center. in reply what he gave.Not a single industry in bihar agains modi lacks of industry in his regime.only we are made chutiy__aas by paid news of development in every media including cyber media he published with the help of looted money meant for development of bihar
So Pagal Patrakar is a Bihari after all!
Chalo theek hai.
in the last 8 years of misrule nitish kumar has destroyed the bihar.so much money he exorted from centre that if not looted by nitish and accumlated in his swiss account each family of bihar would have got one car.so much money he got from center.and in reply what he gave.Not a single industry in bihar agains modi lacks of industry in his regime.only are made chutiy__aas by paid news of development in every media including cyber media he published with the help of looted money meant for development of bihar
Jharkhandi ho kya be?
Nice post. One of the best satires I have read lately
in the last 8 years of misrule nitish kumar has destroyed the bihar.so much money he exorted from centre that if not looted by nitish and accumlated his swiss account each family of bihar would have got one car.so much money he got from center.and in reply what he gave.Not a single industry in bihar agains modi lacks of industry in his regime.only we are made chutiy__aas by paid news of development in every media including cyber media he published with the help of looted money meant for development of bihar
Pagla gaye ho kaya
Kuchh kar to sakte nahi
Koi kuchh achha kar raha hai to ungli karne chale ho
Lalu ke reason main kahan the?
Kaya dum hila rahe the?
Bhai behave like a bihari
Go to bihar and see the changeg being done after start of Nitish Era
I am also non resident Bihari but I visit bihar atleast thrice in a year. any blind can notice the change.
Please comment responsibly.
Hope you understand my feeling
Thanks
Nice post. Exactly my thoughts
the letter ia classic expression of thoughts and very truthful attitude.For the first time we outside bihar thought here is a chief minister which bihar really needs for atleast 20 yrs to transform into another Haryana.But returning timely contribution to Gujrat Nitish kumar has belittled him.When will our politicians stop flaterring our fellow citizens known as Muslims.By doing this we are consolidating band of fanatic Muslims.By bycotting BJP meetings I see Nitish Kumar again on a small piece of fabric instead of huge canvas though very painfully.He should see to it that bihar does not fall in to hands of people like Laalu Yadav and laalu ‘s inlaws.We know Nitish Kumar is incorruptible
Dear NRB dude,
From your article, it looks like you do have some knowledge of Bihar politics. However,
you still have a long way to go before you understand an iota of local mindset.
I am assuming you must have got some MBA degree and you had got some good bihari friends (a lot of people do). To put the concept of “returning 5 crores” in perspective, it was done to appease a bigger section of muslim population (to serve the bigger cause of letting Nitish come back to power and do the good work which he startted)…You dont change the political equations in 1 term (even if you do some miraculous work which has been done in Bihar). I went to Bihar after 6 yrs and all I can tell you is the changes have “shocked me”. When was the last time you imagined watching a night show hindi movie with your family. I did that and there were a lot of other people sitting with me. There are some things which you just have to do, to benefit the bigger picture. Believe me, in between switching jobs 3 times a year, you just thought, you’ll write in this article (drop in some “DUDES”…could have added few referrences to NFL as well..like fake field goals…just to show off)….its very different my friend….you’ll learn it…its better be sooner than later (for your own good)!!!