The resounding victory of Nitish Kumar led NDA in Bihar is a positive sign in Indian Politics. It is a vote for developmental politics, as it should be.
Though, Congress under Narasimha Rao, brought the concept of growth as the focal point in governance in 1990's, it was not out of conviction, but out of necessity - he was forced by the World Bank and Western powers to reform the economy to avail the much needed financial assitance from them.
The Vajpayee led NDA, genuinely made an effort to shift the focus to development by initiating the Golden Quadrilateral/N-S/W-E Highway projects and inter linking of rivers.
The UPA 1 and UPA 2, under Sonia (I refuse to say Manmohan, as he has hardly any say in framing the policies) unfortunately reverted back to the vote bank politics of aam admi, religion and caste. They went back to welfare economics, giving out doles in the guise of NREGS, and sounding populism cliches. All the while, development took a backstage. Initially, the blame was put on the Left Front, their partner in UPA 1, but post Left going out of UPA, things have only worsened. Unwisely, Sonia and her team of Advisors took the route of 1970 kind of slogans of Indira Gandhi of 'Aam Aadmi', 'Garibi Hatao' to polarise the people and try to reap dividends. But people have seen through these empty meaningless slogans that give them no benefit whatsoever. They have also understood that Congress has a vested interest in keeping the poor, poor forever.
With Narendra Modi winning successive elections in Gujarat, and Nitish now winning in Bihar, people are inclined to give a positive vote wherever plausible. True, they still vote negatively. But that is when they dont have a choice, like in Tamil Nadu where there is hardly any difference between DMK and AIADMK or in Kerala, where the LDF and UDF are both corrupt and inefficient, or in UP where Mayawati and Mulayam are unmitigated disasters.
We are seeing the rise of new leadership that is focusing on leading and developing the country, rather than polarising the country on the basis of Caste or Religion or Creed. This can but augur well for the Country in the long run.
