LOST IN TRANSLATION: A PORTRAIT OF BIHAR CM NITISH KUMAR

 There was a time, precisely in the second half of the first decade of this century, Nitish Kumar exuded a different streak of change and vision that were so loudly absent in a majority of Indian Politicians. He worked and worked tirelessly to transform or at least develop Bihar - a state that symbolised (and still so) all which can be described as pathetic. Nitish Kumar developed infrastructure and established law and order in Bihar after more than a decade. It was appreciated by all and he became a towering figure of hope and change. Schools, Hospitals & roads were put on track. Police had started to understand  their duties and acted accordingly. During that time he chose good advisers full of administrative acumen. And, he had an ideology that gave primacy to development. Political nonsense, something which is the mainstay of Indian Politics, was visibly absent in him. He was an ideal person.

Sadly, Nitish Kumar too became a victim of common human frailties. Ambition without care for values was one of them. He became lost on things that made him endearing to all earlier. He kept switching sides in politics in order to remain on the seat of chief minister . And, that was his fall from grace. Development meant little to him. Healthcare and Education are in shambles. He fancied himself as an apostle of prohibition and made selling and drinking alcohol banned in the state. It resulted in illigal production and consumption of alcohol that caused countless deaths. And, he has no remorse for this. Teachers are paid abysmally low and are hired on contract . He has no money to offer a respectable salary to teachers . No investments came. People continue to migrate to other states for employment. And, he has no remorse for this too.

Now he is busy in consolidating opposition parties of the country in order to amass support for, maybe, becoming the Prime Minister of India - the culmination of ambition for every politician in India . 

Nitish Kumar is in existential crisis and a classic case of a man who is Lost In Translation who is suffering loneliness and desperately trying to find meaning of his life political and otherwise. Political obituary nears towards him. Like everbody else, Time will show him the mirror cut especially for himself.

As a citizen I am personally sad to notice his fall as I like many adored him earlier.