What has unfolded in Bihar this election season is unprecedented. Voters have smashed every turnout record since the first general elections of 1951. But what drove this surge? Is Bihar yearning for a transformative change? Or is the electorate fiercely committed to preserving the status quo?
Political experts and researchers will spend years decoding what truly happened here. But one thing is undeniable: this election raises profound questions about the very foundations of Indian democracy.
The Women Who Outvoted Men — For the First Time in Absolute Numbers
Much of the discussion revolves around women voters — and rightly so. Bihar’s polling numbers are historic:
Phase 1:
Women: 69.4%
Men: 61.56%
Phase 2:
Women: 74.03%
Men: 64.1%
For the first time ever, women cast 4.34 lakh more votes than men. More than 3.5 crore women voted. This is not just a statistic — it’s a political earthquake.
Yet this rise in female turnout comes with a troubling question: Did women vote out of conviction, or as gratitude for money transferred directly into their accounts?
40% of Bihar’s Voters Received Government Money Before Polls
Let’s look at what happened just weeks before voting:
Old-age, disability, and widow pensions were raised from ₹400 to ₹1100. Beneficiaries: 1 crore+
₹10,000 transferred each to 1.3 crore women under business-promotion schemes
Payments to vikas mitras, shiksha mitras, unemployed youth, and others
Add it up — and you realize something startling:
Nearly 40% of all voters received direct cash benefits before the election.
When such a huge chunk of the electorate receives money during the campaign period, can we still call this a fair contest?
Is This Empowerment — Or Vote Engineering?
Supporters hail these transfers as welfare. Critics call them “gratitude votes.”
The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
A woman who earns ₹6,000 a month suddenly sees ₹10,000 in her account — a life-changing amount. Expecting her to not feel obliged is unrealistic.
But what does this mean for democracy?
When the state can legally transfer money to millions right before elections, how can the opposition compete? How is the idea of a “level playing field” preserved?
Exit Polls, Narratives, and the Battle for Perception
Even before polling ended, exit polls projected an NDA sweep. BJP workers began ordering celebratory laddoos. Claims flew thick and fast:
“Women voted overwhelmingly for Nitish Kumar.”
“The increased turnout is a vote for stability.”
“BJP will cross 160 seats.”
Tejashwi Yadav countered that the turnout represented a powerful urge for change.
Yet the truth is simple:
We have no post-poll data proving women voted overwhelmingly for one side.
What we do have is a massive cash transfer targeted at female voters — and that alone clouds every claim.
Has Bihar’s Democracy Become a Cash Economy?
The irony is bitter.
For years, unaccounted cash circulated in Indian elections — under the table, behind closed doors. That corruption hasn’t vanished. But now the state itself has become the largest distributor.
What was once illegal cash distribution has now been institutionalized.
If ₹30,000 crore can be distributed right before the polls, then issues like unemployment, migration, and poverty — Bihar’s deepest wounds — get buried under money.
Where does this path lead?
To a democracy where policy becomes indistinguishable from political bribery.
Women's Turnout Was Rising Anyway — Long Before the Cash Transfers
It is important to remember:
In 2010, women’s turnout: 54.5% (higher than men)
In 2015, women: 60.4% (men: 53.3%)
In 2019 LS, women: 59.5% (men: 54.9%)
In 2020, women: 59.7% (men: 54.6%)
Women have been politically active for a decade. Their turnout was rising regardless of cash transfers.
So why did this particular election cross 70%?
Is it only money?
Is it aspiration?
Is it anger?
Is it hope?
Nobody has a definitive answer.
The Opposition’s Failure to Counter the ‘Cash Narrative’
The opposition, too, promised money — sometimes more than the ruling alliance. But it never built a coherent narrative warning women that their votes were being purchased.
Priyanka Gandhi came close when she said:
“Take the ₹10,000 — but vote for your children’s future.”
But one speech cannot match a multi-thousand-crore machinery.
The Larger Democratic Crisis
This election signals something far bigger than Bihar:
Direct cash transfers right before elections are becoming normalized.
Election campaigns are turning into competitive giveaways.
The Election Commission is silent.
Media is complicit.
Oversight is nonexistent.
The line between welfare and inducement is disappearing.
If a political party can spend ₹30,000 crore before voting, how can faith in electoral fairness survive?
Bihar may have just become the test case for a new kind of democracy — one where votes are not stolen, but bought with taxpayer money.
So What Did Bihar Vote For?
Nobody can say for sure — not exit polls, not political parties, not analysts.
But one thing is certain:
When money precedes voting, democracy follows money.
Whether NDA wins or the Mahagathbandhan sweeps — the deeper question remains unanswered:
Has Bihar voted for change?
Or has Bihar been changed by money?
Hello, I’m Ravish Kumar.
I have an idea for Bihar’s next government — an unusual one. Instead of pretending to stop migration, why not embrace it? Why not create a Ministry of Migration?
Sounds strange, right? But think about it.
Back in 2004, India created a separate department for Indians living abroad — the Ministry of Non-Resident Indians, later renamed Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, before being merged with the Ministry of External Affairs in 2016. If the Indian government can care for Indians abroad, then why can’t Bihar care for its own people living outside the state — its NRBs: Non-Resident Biharis?
Every Indian state has its share of Bihari workers. They build roads, run factories, clean cities, and power other states’ economies. Isn’t it time Bihar acknowledged their existence formally — with a dedicated ministry that tracks their welfare, ensures they live in humane conditions, and keeps in touch with them through offices in major cities like Delhi, Surat, or Ludhiana?
Critics will laugh. Some will say the government’s job is to stop migration, not support it.
But look at the reality — no government has ever managed to stop it. Not in 20 years. Even during Nitish Kumar’s so-called “golden years of law and order,” migration soared. Opportunities kept blooming outside Bihar, not within. People continued to leave — for survival, for dignity, for hope.
Migration, therefore, is not Bihar’s Plan B — it’s Plan A.
It’s the state’s most successful export.
And perhaps it’s time to give it the status of an industry.
Imagine this:
First-time migrants get a subsidized train ticket, a suitcase, and a bottle of water from the government.
Families returning home for Chhath or Holi get a travel subsidy — just like big industrialists get subsidies worth crores for setting up factories. If billionaires can get land at discounted prices, why can’t the poor get help to travel for work — their only “industry”?
Because let’s face it — migration is already Bihar’s largest economic activity.
During festivals, when over 1.5 crore people return home, the sheer chaos at railway stations tells the story no economic report can. If Bihar had a Migration Minister, they could plan better — create safe travel corridors, maintain worker registries, ensure safety and dignity, and monitor living conditions in host cities.
Look at how West Bengal’s Chief Minister once sent MPs to protect migrant workers in Gurugram.
If Bengal can care for its migrants, why can’t Bihar?
Bihar’s migrants live in makeshift colonies — often without clean water or toilets — across Indian cities. If the state government simply started tweeting photos of these settlements, the country would see the uncomfortable truth of how “development” really looks for those who build it.
So yes — Bihar needs a Ministry of Migration.
It needs to accept that migration isn’t a failure — it’s a symptom of a broken model.
Because after 20 years of good roads and electricity, why is there still no economic transformation?
Why is every young Bihari still dreaming of leaving home?
Why does the average Bihari student still have to move to Delhi, Kota, or Patna for education?
Why are the hospitals of Delhi and Lucknow filled with patients from Bihar?
Migration is not just about jobs. It’s about education, healthcare, hope, and dignity.
And while caste politics still dominates Bihar’s elections — keeping people divided over old loyalties — the economy remains stagnant. The poor from every caste remain poor. A few elites, contractors, and middlemen thrive, but the rest migrate.
It’s time Bihar starts talking about economic democratization — about land reform, quality education, and meaningful jobs. Because if a state can’t retain its youth, what kind of governance is that?
Until then, let’s stop the pretense.
Let’s recognize migration.
Let’s make it official.
Create a Migration ID Card, a Migration Police, and a Migration Budget.
Let’s treat the migrant not as a failure, but as Bihar’s most hardworking ambassador — a citizen who has built India city by city, brick by brick.
Migration is Bihar’s industry, enterprise, and opportunity.
It’s time the government accepts it — not as shame, but as reality.
So yes — let’s make it official.
Let’s have a Ministry of Migration.
Let’s stop migrating from the truth.
Hello, I’m Ravish Kumar.
In Bihar, a factory of “development” is running — but this one produces poverty. It manufactures not prosperity, but laborers ready to migrate. The factory of Bihar’s growth doesn’t create owners; it creates workers for others’ industries.
According to the Bihar government’s own data, over 4 million acres of land lie barren and unused — land that could have been used for industries. This number comes from the state’s Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department and only accounts for cultivable land, not private or inhabited plots. Nothing prevents a government from repurposing such land for industrial use. So, when Home Minister Amit Shah says Bihar lacks land for large industries, is that a fact — or a convenient excuse?
Twenty years is a long time. After two decades, if all a state can show are roads and bridges, something fundamental has gone wrong. Roads alone don’t build futures. They are meant to lead to industries, to jobs — not just out of Bihar.
The Land Is There, But the Will Is Missing
The Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) lists 922 acres of land immediately available for industrial use as of May 2025. The state cabinet recently approved the acquisition of 2,600 acres more for new industrial areas, with 1,300 acres earmarked for the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor. The Infrastructure Development Authority (IDA) has its own land bank too.
So the question isn’t “Where is the land?”
It’s “Why isn’t it being used for Bihar’s people?”
Two of the most powerful and experienced political figures in India — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar — have ruled for decades between them. Yet neither has a convincing answer: Why hasn’t Bihar seen industrial growth? Why do its youth still migrate for jobs?
If development meant only law and order and roads, Bihar should have prospered by now. But even after 20 years of both, it remains among India’s poorest states. Perhaps Bihar has not just been left behind — it has been kept poor.
Budget of Excuses
According to the Bihar Industries Association, the state’s industry budget is only 0.62% of its total expenditure. Less than 1%. How can you build factories with such intent? How can a government that refuses to invest even 1% in industry claim there’s “no land”?
Tejashwi Yadav puts it sharply:
“They build factories in Gujarat, but want victories in Bihar.”
Prashant Kishor adds:
“A bullet train for Gujarat, not even a general bogie for Bihar.”
These aren’t mere political jibes — they cut into the very heart of Bihar’s economic injustice.
Two Decades of Power, One State Left Behind
Since 2001, Gujarat has had continuous BJP rule. Narendra Modi served as Chief Minister till 2014. After him, the party changed chief ministers thrice, yet the governance model remained intact. In Bihar, the BJP has also been in or around power for nearly as long — yet the contrast is glaring.
Why has Gujarat been turned into a “model state” while Bihar remains an exporter of cheap labor?
Amit Shah has been the Minister of Cooperation for four years now — a ministry deeply connected with sugar mills and agriculture. Yet, Bihar’s sugar mills remain shut, despite promises made by both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. In contrast, the opposition claims to have revived at least one mill in Seemanchal.
Even Bihar’s agriculture, once its strength, hasn’t escaped decline. The state’s farmers remain poor despite fertile soil and abundant water — because there’s been no meaningful reform.
Infrastructure Without Industry
Look at the figures:
Between 2005 and 2025, Bihar built over 11,500 km of new roads and thousands of bridges. The state boasts of massive investment — ₹4 lakh crore in roads and bridges, ₹1 lakh crore in rail projects, and several thousand crores in airports.
But who are these projects really for?
If industries never came, who uses these roads?
Infrastructure without industry is a mirage — it creates hope, not jobs. It feeds the cement and steel contractors, not the laborers who migrate from Gaya and Darbhanga to Surat and Delhi.
The Corruption Within
Bihar’s development model has also been hollowed out by corruption. Even as engineers are caught with ₹100 crore in their homes, no real accountability follows. Ministers under investigation are shielded. The chief minister speaks of ethics, but Bihar has come to recognize this as political theatre, not moral leadership.
The 2025 Industrial Package: A Giveaway, Not a Reform
Just before the elections, Nitish Kumar announced the Industrial Investment Promotion Package 2025, promising to give free land to Fortune 500 companies and half-priced land to others.
Think about it:
Amazon, Apple, and Walmart — companies whose turnovers are bigger than Bihar’s entire budget — are being offered free land. What kind of industrial policy gives away scarce public land to global giants, while poor families remain landless?
Why not free land for the poor?
Why not for the young entrepreneurs of Bihar?
The Contradiction of Land
Amit Shah says there’s no land for industries. Yet, Congress alleges that 1,050 acres in Bhagalpur — with 10 lakh fruit trees — were handed to Adani Power at ₹1 per year for 33 years. Farmers protesting the deal were reportedly confined to their homes during the Prime Minister’s visit. So, does land scarcity exist only for some?
The Suitcase Economy
Bihar today lives in a suitcase.
Every Chhath Puja, the entire nation witnesses this — trains and buses overflowing with migrants returning home. Families that left for work in Surat, Noida, or Mumbai, just to return once a year — this is the real face of “Bihar’s development.”
The dignity of Bihar’s workers has been eroded not outside the state — but within it.
A society that normalizes exodus cannot call itself developed.
The Politics of Managed Expectations
When politicians say there is “no land,” what they mean is — there is no will. Bihar has water, fertile land, and intelligent, hardworking people. But it lacks political intent. The goal seems to be managing expectations, not changing realities.
If roads could be built, why not colleges?
If bridges could be made, why not factories?
Even as Bihar’s students top competitive exams nationwide, their home state offers them neither education nor employment. Praise of Bihar’s “intelligence and hard work” rings hollow when it comes from the same leaders who failed to nurture it.
The Unasked Question
If Gujarat can be the “model,” why not Bihar?
If the same party, the same leadership, and the same ideology rule both states — what went wrong in Bihar?
The answer may lie in intent.
Bihar’s story is not of incapacity — it’s of deliberate neglect. The state has been made a supplier of cheap, disciplined labor for India’s industries. Its poverty has become its export.
Conclusion: Beyond Roads and Bridges
Bihar doesn’t need more speeches about its intelligence or its potential. It needs factories, not flyovers; jobs, not just promises. Twenty years of roads and rhetoric cannot hide the truth anymore.
As Amit Shah praises Bihar’s intellect and industry, the real Bihar packs its bags once again — not for a factory job in Patna, but for a construction site in Gujarat.
That’s the story of “development” in Bihar —
A development that builds everything except the future of its people.
A strange debate has taken root in Bihar. A debate between reel and rozgaar — between short-form video entertainment and real employment.
Rahul Gandhi calls reels an addiction. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls them a source of employment.
At a recent rally in Bihar, the Prime Minister proudly claimed that his government made data cheaper, and as a result, Bihar’s youth are earning through reels.
It was meant to sound like a story of digital empowerment. In truth, it revealed the tragic distance between politics and the real lives of Bihar’s young generation.
The Cost of a Dream Called “Reel Economy”
If reel-making were truly a viable employment model, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar — who has ruled the state for nearly two decades — wouldn’t be distributing unemployment allowances and election-time stipends to women.
He’d be giving ₹10,000 to every youth to start making reels — because, as the Prime Minister suggests, Bihar’s youth can now “earn from creativity” thanks to cheap data.
But ask the young creators themselves, and a very different story emerges.
They tell you: one reel takes 5–6 hours to make, often shot under the sun or in the rain, edited painstakingly on a phone they bought on loan.
Their content gets views, but not revenue. Ad deals are rare, local sponsors pay ₹1000–₹2000, and platforms like Instagram don’t pay creators at all.
For most, “reel-making” is not an income — it’s an expensive hobby sustained by hope.
One student from Samastipur shared how he borrowed ₹32,000 from his mother to buy a phone, promising to pay it back from his “reel income.” Months later, he’s still in debt.
Cheap Data or Costly Distraction?
The Prime Minister claims data is cheaper than tea.
But the reality on the ground contradicts that. Over the past year, data rates have risen by 20–25%. Entry-level recharge plans have been scrapped by major telecoms.
Airtel’s ₹249 plan is now ₹299, and Jio’s basic 1GB-per-day plan doesn’t exist anymore.
When young creators say uploading a single video consumes 500–600MB, you realize that this “cheap data” narrative is detached from the ground truth.
It’s one thing to have mobile phones in every home. It’s another to have genuine digital empowerment.
Only around 43% of Bihar’s population has internet access, far below Kerala’s 70%.
Barely 1% of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and extremely backward-class households own a laptop or computer.
So even if data were free, how would Bihar’s youth turn it into employment when the basic digital infrastructure is missing?
The Barren Landscape of Real Jobs
Aditya Anand, a young professional from Munger, wrote a viral post on LinkedIn about this illusion of opportunity.
He called Bihar the perfect example of how India is squandering its demographic dividend.
In his words:
“Half the youth here are preparing for government jobs that never come. The other half are scrolling American apps on Chinese phones, cursing both countries while trapped in their systems.”
His observation captures the paradox: a state overflowing with youth energy, yet starved of opportunities.
Gyms are full, coaching centres are crowded, and reels are endless — but factories, startups, and meaningful jobs remain missing.
Politics of Distraction
From pakora employment in 2019 to reel employment in 2025, the slogans have changed but the reality hasn’t.
What remains constant is the government’s attempt to rename or reframe unemployment as entrepreneurship.
The Prime Minister says “reel-making is work.” But he doesn’t say which colleges, universities, or industries his government has strengthened to create real jobs.
He doesn’t explain why Patna University, established in 1917, still awaits central university status — a promise dismissed on stage eight years ago.
When asked about factories, BJP leaders say there’s no land in Bihar.
Yet, the same state provides lakhs of migrants who build cities in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Delhi.
The land is apparently too scarce for factories, but not for election rallies.
The Global Lens: Reels as Addiction
Rahul Gandhi called reels a “nasha” — an addiction.
And he’s not wrong. Globally, research is piling up on the psychological impact of social media reels: reduced attention span, rising anxiety, depression, and addiction among children and young adults.
In the U.S., parents have even sued Facebook and Instagram, blaming them for mental health issues in their children.
Yet, India’s Prime Minister celebrates the same platforms as vehicles of employment.
No country that takes youth mental health seriously would glorify an addictive technology as a source of national productivity.
The Digital Illusion of Employment
It’s important to understand that content creation is indeed an economy — but not one built by the Indian government.
It exists because of global platforms like YouTube, Google, Meta, and X.
Governments have, in fact, made this space more fragile through restrictive IT rules.
The 2021 amendments to India’s IT Act allow bureaucrats to order the removal of online content without transparent justification.
Platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have challenged this in court.
This means even the little economic opportunity that YouTube creators or independent journalists found online exists under constant threat of censorship.
So, when the Prime Minister takes credit for “creating” a reel economy, it’s misleading — both economically and politically.
Bihar’s Young, Stuck Between Hope and Deprivation
Bihar is India’s youngest state — about 10% of India’s youth live there.
Yet, its unemployment rate remains among the highest.
For 20 years, one chief minister and one alliance have ruled, claiming “double engine” governance.
But what has that engine built?
Education remains in ruins.
Industries are absent.
And instead of modern universities or IT hubs, the youth are offered cheap data and motivational speeches about reels.
In a state where 98% of households lack computers, what sense does it make to talk about digital entrepreneurship?
The Real Question
The real question is not whether making reels is good or bad.
It’s whether the government can get away with calling it employment in a state that desperately needs factories, universities, and functioning institutions.
If reels are truly the future of jobs, perhaps our leaders should also quit politics and start making them.
They might discover, as Bihar’s youth already have, that likes don’t pay bills.
Conclusion: Between Red Light and Blue Light
Bihar’s nights glow with the blue light of mobile screens — not the lamps of study or the sparks of industry.
The young scroll endlessly, not out of joy, but out of boredom and helplessness.
Every reel is a cry of creativity trapped inside a system that refuses to open its doors.
The tragedy is not that Bihar’s youth are making reels.
The tragedy is that the country’s leaders now call it employment.
Why is the debate around jobs in Bihar so shallow, so disconnected from what’s happening in the rest of the world?
Across the globe, conversations about employment revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and the future of work. But in Bihar, the discussion remains trapped in slogans, promises, and political arithmetic — a world away from reality.
Walk through the coaching centers of Patna. You’ll see thousands of students spilling out of narrow lanes, their faces filled with anxiety and hope. These are some of the most hardworking youth in India, preparing day and night for government jobs. Yet, the system seems designed to fail most of them.
How can a state with such intellectual energy and ambition still be debating jobs in the 20th-century sense — when the rest of the world is debating the disappearance of jobs altogether?
The Global Conversation: AI, Robots, and the Future of Work
In America, The New York Times recently reported that Amazon may replace 500,000 workers with robots. The debate there isn’t about migrants taking jobs — it’s about billionaires replacing humans with machines.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has laid off thousands due to AI-driven restructuring. Target, one of the biggest U.S. retail chains, is cutting 1,800 jobs.
These developments have triggered fierce debate in the West:
Should companies pay a “robot tax”?
Who will buy goods if humans lose purchasing power?
How do we retrain workers for the AI era?
India’s own IT giants — the pride of a generation — are now announcing large-scale layoffs as AI automates coding, testing, and support roles. Yet in Bihar, none of this seems to matter. There’s barely a whisper of discussion about AI’s impact on jobs, skills, or policy.
The Local Reality: Empty Promises, Delayed Dreams
While the world debates the loss of jobs, Bihar’s leaders are promising to create millions.
Home Minister Amit Shah says Bihar will become an AI hub in the next ten years. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar promises one crore (10 million) jobs in five years.
But what kind of jobs?
At what salaries?
And where will the money come from?
Even Amazon cannot create a million jobs in today’s world — but Bihar’s leaders say they can. For two decades, Nitish Kumar has ruled a state that remains among India’s poorest. Despite “double-engine” governments in Delhi and Patna, Bihar leads in neither manufacturing, IT, nor services.
Political stability has delivered political survival — not prosperity.
The Fantasy of Tech Parks and IT Hubs
Look at the much-celebrated Software Technology Parks in Darbhanga and Bhagalpur.
The announcements came in 2015. The foundation stones were laid years later. In Bhagalpur, the park took nine years to complete; in Darbhanga, ten.
Now that they’re finally inaugurated, what next?
Are these centers equipped for AI, data science, or robotics? Or are they simply government buildings with outdated infrastructure and no industry linkage?
If such parks were truly transforming Bihar, engineers across the state would be the first to speak up. Instead, silence reigns — replaced by caste politics and hollow declarations.
Numbers That Don’t Add Up
Nitish Kumar’s claim of giving jobs to 10 lakh (1 million) people rings hollow when you look at Bihar’s own Economic Survey.
In 2024, all government recruitment bodies combined — BPSC, BTSC, BPSSC, and CSBC — gave just over 2 lakh jobs. Even in the best recruitment year, that’s a fraction of what’s promised.
Bihar has around 2.9 crore families.
If every family were to get one government job, even at an average salary of ₹70,000 per month, the cost would be ₹29 lakh crore a year — while Bihar’s total budget is just ₹3.17 lakh crore.
The math simply doesn’t work.
But slogans do.
Cash Transfers Instead of Creation
Ahead of elections, Bihar’s government distributed nearly ₹19,000 crore directly into people’s accounts — about one-third of the state’s annual revenue.
Twenty-five lakh women received ₹10,000 each in a single day.
Does this create jobs? No.
It only buys time — and votes.
Maharashtra’s similar Ladki Bahin Yojana was exposed for paying 26 lakh ineligible people. Bihar seems to be repeating the same story: short-term appeasement instead of structural reform.
When Engineers Stay Silent
Thousands of engineers from Bihar work in Bengaluru, Delhi, London, and New York. They are building AI systems, managing IT infrastructure, and designing the algorithms shaping the future.
But where are their voices in Bihar’s debate on jobs?
Why aren’t they speaking up about how AI is transforming their industries — and what that means for their home state?
If the educated remain silent, caste and populism will continue to define Bihar’s economic narrative.
The Coming Storm
AI is no longer a distant threat.
According to NITI Aayog’s 2024 report, 20 lakh IT jobs in India may disappear soon — though 40 lakh new ones could emerge in AI and automation-related fields. The question is: who will be ready for them?
Most of Bihar’s youth are still preparing for clerical or low-level government jobs that may not even exist in a decade.
The global economy is shifting, but Bihar’s education and political systems are stuck in time.
Beyond Rhetoric: What Bihar Needs
If Bihar truly wants to prepare for the AI era, it must:
Invest in skills, not slogans — AI literacy, data science, and vocational training.
Build partnerships with tech companies, not just tech parks.
Encourage local innovation — startups, agricultural AI, and small manufacturing automation.
Empower universities to run industry-linked programs.
Focus on transparency and execution, not just inauguration ceremonies.
Conclusion: The Missing Theme
This election in Bihar feels like an election without a theme.
Caste loyalties are being rearranged; old promises are being repackaged. But no one is asking the essential question: what kind of work will exist in the future, and who will have access to it?
When the world is discussing the ethics of AI and the economics of automation, Bihar is still debating who will get a government job.
That is the tragedy — and the warning.
If Bihar continues to debate the past while the world builds the future, the gap will only grow wider.
Taken from the book: 21 Leadership Lessons of Narendra Damodardas Modi
"Our greatest glory isn't never falling, but rising every time we fall." ~ Oliver Goldsmith
Challenges, setbacks, hurdles: almost everyone faces them, especially those in a position of power and responsibility. What differentiates good leaders from exceptional ones is not their intelligence or affinity for good strategies, but their self-determination. In times of challenging circumstances, brilliant ideas are necessary, but the leader's perseverance and will to get through the problem is something far more fundamental and important. Imagine what would happen if the leader of a group turns around and vanishes, abandoning his team! That certainly won't be a pretty picture.
Effective leaders have the resolve to look at problems with a brave face. Thinking calmly and staying in control leads them to manage and look for possible alternative solutions. A perseverant leader, driven by a constant vision, is able to make his team anchor on his beliefs, thoughts, values and principles. It helps one to stay motivated.
Narendra Modi's journey from a bal sevak in RSS to the Prime Minister of India is a story of deep-rooted determination. Set with a vision in mind, he has been looking into solutions and working on them persistently. His zest for work was quite visible and in a lot many instances, appreciated. In the early 1990s, Modi was handed the responsibility of L K Advani's Rath Yatra (1990) and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's Ekta Yatra (1991–92) despite being in a junior role in the state unit in BJP. The RSS leaders had quickly provided their assent taking into consideration Modi's initial years of success and hard work.
Given the fact that the Indian political system is characterised by issues of groups and favouritism where the emerging and struggling political aspirants will spend more time in pleasing their seniors than working at grassroots levels, Narendra Damodardas Modi chose the path of hard work to make his mark, despite being aware that achieving success and admiration through work and results is a long path vis-à-vis any short cut.
His desire to achieve the unachievable, pushing him to extreme and social awareness played an important part in overall rise of Narendra Modi. People who know Modi from earlier days recount him as a self-motivated and socially conscious individual who followed high morality in his personal disposition. Indeed many of his old associates find that Modi has displayed a unique trait of incrementing his perseverance and determination as he kept moving upwards in power hierarchy. He is known as one who never basks on his past or present glories, but has his sights set on the next milestone even before achieving the previous one.
As a youngster, Modi seemed to be interested in disassociating himself from his small life in Vadnagar. As a means of escape from his family life, he 'disappeared' for stretches of time to spend time completely by himself in a secluded place. Really wanting to do something that would give him a distinct identity, Modi never gave up. Perseverance became the prerequisite to living the life he wanted to live.
Starting small and performing jobs lower in class is usually something that is not preferred, unless the individual harbours a broader perspective and like Modi, knows that those are just stepping stones for future success. People tend to give up, feeling dejected at the quality of work required of them, sometimes giving up because of jealousy. Successful people who go on to become leaders sometimes start no different, but they are quite willing to overcome challenges and have the strength and determination to see their goals churning into fruition. Modi's jobs and responsibilities during his initial years in RSS can be described as menial and routine. However, Modi's idea of carrying out all tasks effectively prepared him for the various roles he was later asked to play. Certainly, no job is useless!
This also helped him later in his career as it provided people the confidence in his abilities and his determined will to passionately work for the cause he believed in. The reason the RSS was handing out bigger responsibilities to him was because they were pleased with his efficiency and the fact that he performed whatever he undertook with utmost enthusiasm. When such individuals go on to become leaders, and are responsible for a lot many people, it is this determination settled in them that allows them to keep on pursuing their goals and in the process, leverage things to their advantage. In the midst of any crisis, they must have the capacity to continue.
As Modi rose up the ranks, he found that his Dharmic rooted perspective needed a modern reinvention. In order to keep himself up with the times, he understood and valued the importance of having a broader perspective. Although there would be evidence and opinions for the otherwise, one can't deny the fact that he did try learning from whatever he could and inculcating modern management principles that are so necessary to lead India in the contemporary scene.
It's not that Modi didn't face failures or challenges; in fact, leading Gujarat during the Gujarat Riots and Godhara issues became a hounding issue for him. Surely, no leader would want to be held responsible for such an issue, especially when he took command of a state only months back. Anyone who is even remotely aware of the Indian governance system would appreciate that the system is rather complex and not as simple as it appears. The strong hold of regional political satraps, bureaucracy and the established power centres with the Indian political framework provides little leverage for even the established Chief Minister of any state to operate, more so when one is new and just acclimatising himself with the complexities of governance. However, despite all the negativities that surrounded him, Narendra Modi chose to concentrate and shift the discourse to the economic agenda and growth which doesn't suffer from the normal discrepancies of secular v/s non secular, regionalism, etc. He's remained perseverant that the only model that Gujarat and he would propagate is purely economic, which in the end would benefit all. Though his critics kept hitting him with the phrase, 'single agenda', he chose to respond to them with a vibrant economic model. He provided a never-thought-of model of investment inflow, with senior IAS officers being assigned to and accountable for every investment flowing within the state. His detractors and critics not just challenged him in India but ensured that even his international reputation remains challenged; however, with a single minded focus on his state, he carved a path of economic diplomacy where the international investors themselves pushed their respective governments to remain engaged with him. Probably this is one of the few instances where international diplomatic efforts were targeted towards a particular state of India and not just at national level.
Another example that displayed his determination and perseverance was the handling of the devastations that occurred in the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, which killed more than 20,000 people, destroyed 4,00,000 houses and accounted for a loss of billions in economic damages. The incident occurred around nine months before Narendra Modi took the reins of the state. Modi could have chosen to just maintain the continuity of efforts, but after becoming the Chief Minister, he galvanised investment and rehabilitation efforts to such an extent that today, Kutch boasts of one of the finest models of rehabilitation across the world and the area is economically better than what it was before the tragedy.
It is said that Alexander the Great, unlike other kings of past, never remained hidden by his cavalry or artillery, rather he would stand with his front-line soldiers and lead the attack from the front. Similarly, Narendra Modi is not known to remain contended by just delegation of duties to either his colleagues or officers but prefers a more hands-on approach of remaining at the forefront in testing times.
The heights great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In the most recent scenario, Modi's win as Prime Minister of the country in May 2014 is in itself a valid example of the results of being consistently persistent. Emerging as a symbol of hope for the youth of this country, Modi shoulders the expectations of the people and reflects their unwavering confidence in his leadership abilities. Continuously stating the government's goals and plans, not just to his team but to the media and the public, he has generated that sense of confidence that things can turn out to be good. His apparent determination to make it happen also helps motivating the team, which further works with a positive attitude.
Organizing hundreds of rallies all over the country in an unimaginable time period, being at the forefront of all his initiatives, making full use of technology and social media to leverage his party, Modi carried out all possible ideas to win his quest for Prime Minister. Modi has also generated criticism and times of uncertainty in the face of problems. There's enough evidence to see the number of issues he has had to deal with, most of which were a direct attack to his pride, something he keeps safe and sound. Ram Jethmalani, senior politician and eminent lawyer, started his article in the Sunday Guardian with these lines: "No politician in independent India has been demonised in such a relentless, Goebbelsian manner as Narendra Modi, and no politician has withstood it with as much resilience and courage as him, notwithstanding the entire Central government, influential sections of the media machinery and civil society arraigned against him."
It requires tenacity to be able to conserve one's emotions and maintain clarity as to the goals. Narendra Modi is one such person, strong and courageous, with fortitude to carry on in the face of insoluble dilemmas.
Narendra Modi has displayed a high level of personal initiative, perseverance and a will power to counter all odds no matter what they are, and he in many ways epitomises what Gurdev Rabindra Nath Tagore wrote in his famous poem Ekla Chalo Re (Go All Alone)
Jodi tor dak sune keu na ashe, Tobe ekla cholo, ekla chalo, aekla chalo re, Aikla cholo re
(If no one answers your call, then walk alone, be not afraid, walk alone my friend)
Jodi kue kotha na koe, ore o re o obaghaga, keu kotha na koe Jodi sobai thake mulik phirae, sobai kore bhoye, Tobe poran khule, O tui, mukh phute tor moner kotha, Ekla bolo re (If no one talks to you, O my unlucky friend, if no one speaks to you, If everyone looks the other way and everyone is afraid, then bare your soul and let out what is in your mind, be not afraid, speak alone my friend)
Jab kali ghata chaye, Ore o re o andhera sach ko nigal jaye, Jab duniya sari, dar ke age sar apna jinkaye, Tu shola banja, Wo shola banja, Jo khuá jal ke jahan raushan karde, Ekla jalo re. (When dark clouds cover the sky, When darkness engulfs the truth, When the world covers and bows before fear, You be the flame, The flame that burns you and banishes darkness from the world, be not afraid, Burn alone my friend)
~ Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore
Footsteps - Mahatma Gandhi
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of world's problem
~ Mahatama Gandhi
Great leaders have attained success and fulfilled their goals; be those personal or for the welfare of society or the country, primarily because of the inherent abundance of determination. Mahatma Gandhi, the visionary who was an integral figure in India's fight for independence, is also an example of sheer perseverance and will power. Gandhi advocated non-violence, believing in fighting for the truth with ahinsa. The term satyagraha coined by him literally means “persistence of truth” and goes on to show how perseverance was a factor deeply ingrained in him, not just in his actions, but also in his every belief.
Before jumping into the independence struggle of India, Gandhi undertook a country-long journey to understand the challenges that lay in front of him. He knew that India is a diverse country and to sew it into a thread of single agenda would require sheer determination and hard work. During the freedom struggle, Gandhi would often travel to remote areas to remain ingrained with the people at large. He was determined that until and unless he covers India in its entirety, he could neither emerge as a national leader nor could push ahead his agenda of its independence. Similarly, much before Narendra Modi set his sights on the national pedestal, he had started travelling to states that were weak points of his party. He knew that while he was successfully leading his home state Gujarat, his larger agenda of national growth could only be achieved if he emerged as a national leader upon whom people during the 2014 general elections, he travelled far and wide across India covering the entire length and breadth of the country to remain in connect with the masses at large. His determination to achieve the goal can be adjudged by the very fact that he would begin his day as early as 4 AM in the morning and after his daily chores would conduct back to back election meetings across India, sometimes on same-day flying from Gujarat to North East and then to South India and parts of North India and returning back to Gandhinagar to grab a sleep of 2-3 hours daily. This perseverance and focus indeed resulted in Narendra Modi becoming a national leader and people across the board connecting with him and propagating his agenda at large.
Gandhi knew that the path to India's freedom was long but he was also determined that no matter what he would not shun the path of non-violence, so much so that he suspended the satyagraha movement when a police station was set ablaze in Chauri Chaura, a town near Gorakhpur in present day Uttar Pradesh. He felt that it's important to first spread the real meaning of ahimsa and then move forward in implementing it with the masses. Gandhi's approach thus was oriented towards first spreading the vision and then laying the foundation for its implementation. Similarly, Narendra Modi feels that that true growth of India could only be achieved if it is linked to economic growth of masses. In an articulate manner he has conveyed his vision to the countrymen and now he is working determinedly to untangle the bottlenecks that lie in front of him and his vision.
One reason why effective leaders persevere is their conviction in their own beliefs. Gandhi was sure of non-violence as the right means of winning freedom and although he was widely criticized by other leaders, he was quite set in his belief and was determined to make India free by those means. He spread his message far and wide, worked at the forefront, motivated and mobilized the people and despite many setbacks and despicable circumstances, never gave up. Narendra Modi shares this quality with Gandhi, who created his plans and points of action based on the ultimate goal in mind, and carried it out with strong-founded determination. Such leaders place a 'never say die' attitude in the midst of their minds and continue working to achieve their goals with complete focus. Be it his career cycle, or the vision he has now set for India, Modi has provided enough evidence to believe that he would see it through, no matter what.
Even as a youngster, Gandhi looked for opportunities to learn from everywhere he went, especially during his stay in England when he was studying law. When he faced roadblocks, he did not simply try to return to India however much he wanted, but decided to stay back and look for alternative solutions to resolve his problems.
Just like Gandhi's persona exuded his perseverance, Modi's stance also reveals him to be someone who would not easily give up. His authoritarian nature might even add to this determination, for he would work towards achieving what he promised with utmost diligence so as to maintain his authority and trust in the people. Gandhi's unrelenting pursuit of his goals, self-abnegation, courage, tolerance and perseverance are qualities Narendra Modi seems to have picked up and is now using to become an effective leader.
