NITI Aayog’s draft bill empowers citizens to check doctors’ degrees

Manish Kumar

New Delhi, Aug 10: The NITI Aayog Wednesday released a draft bill christened draft National Medical Commission Bill 2016 which envisages repealing the current Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 which gives powers to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to regulate medical education in India. The move is likely to replace the MCI with the proposed National Medical Commision (NMC).

This comes after the widespread criticism of the workings of the MCI included in the 92nd Report of Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, presented to the Rajya Sabha  this year.

The Centre earlier had appointed a committee under the chairmanship of vice chairman of the NITI Aayog on March 28 this year.  The Committee, which included Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, CEO, NITI Aayog and Secretary, H&FW as members, was asked to examine all options for reforms in the Medical Council of India and suggest the way forward.

According to the draft bill, now an electronic medical registry must be prepared by the state medical councils under the proposed Board for Medical Registrations. The bill mandates that the data pertaining to the degrees of every doctor from every state must be maintained in the electronic system which could also be accessible to the public as well.

The draft bill meanwhile also bats for forming three different bodies like- under graduate board for medical education, post graduate board for medical education and a board for medical registration. The bill envisages a National Medical Commission which would regulate the medical education in the country with additional powers.

The bill also talks about forming a search-cum-selection committee which will be formed out of members from the NITI Aayog and members from the health and family welfare ministry pre-dominantly. However it talks about autonomy of the commission and different bodies formed under the law once it gets passed by the Parliament.

The draft bill envisages the National Medical Commission (NMC) to be headed by a deserving chairman from the field of health with ample experience in the field besides having a member secretary, eight ex-officio members and 10 part time members.

However, the Aayog seemed to have given more powers to the selection of the members of the NMC and also more representation of bureaucrats from central deputation rather than encouraging participation from states.

New govt and the gendered life

By-Manish Kumar


Since the beginning of campaigning for the 16th Lok Sabha elections, several parties have been breast beating about being more inclusive in terms of caste, class, religion and even gender. Several promises relating to welfare of women have been made through political speeches made by party honchos in the past few months. But, can the new government provide equal opportunity to the gendered life during the next five years, is a matter of discussion.

According to the 2011 Census, out of the 1.21.02 crore population in the country, 62, 37,24,248 were female which comprise almost half of the population. The same Census also states that while 82.14 per cent males are literate, the percentage of literate women is only 65.46. The chasm in literacy levels of the two genders conspicuously hints at the disparity of resources made available to them.

Trace it to ancient India:

The concept of depriving women access to varied resources could be dated back to the days of the famous ancient sage Manu. The ancient Sanskrit  literature Manu Smriti talked about varied freedom the different castes in the four varna system could enjoy. It said that the top three castes in the varna system can enjoy polygamy and were free for hypergamy but the opposite was never encouraged. In ancient India, women were compelled to accept hegemony of their male counterparts. The patriarchal society in the country also contributed in widening the disparity.

Well, with the advent of more schools, colleges, technologies and with the emerging of nuclear families it was expected the discriminated gender would get more liberty but it could not be achieved. Several data pertaining to the condition of women in our country can flummox many. The new government needs to give a deeper thought to uplift their standards. The new government ought to work on police, judicial and social reforms to minimize the chasm.

How empowered are women in politics:

Few months back the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women put forth its report on the participation of women in politics in 188 countries. India was ranked 73^rd when it came to the percentage of parliamentary and ministerial posts occupied by women. It said that in India, less than 10% of parliamentary and ministerial posts are occupied by women. Some African countries like-Rwanda performed better, where there are 50% female legislators. Europe, America and Africa performed better than Asia in terms of their participation in active politics. Even during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, according to some media reports most of the major parties have given less than 10 per cent of their tickets to women candidates.

Is the situation better in government services?

Two parliamentary panels which studied representation of women in government services were also rattled by their findings. One panel noted that women formed only 10.4% of the central government staff of all categories. However, the overall participation of women in central services improved in one decade. In 2001, the number was just 7.53%. In Railways, the figures are more pathetic. Here merely 6.43% of the total workforce comprised women.

What about the police force?

Another panel found that the national average of women in the police force is merely 5.33%. The Ratna Singh Committee recommended women’s representation in police force should be 33%. With more crimes against women coming to the fore, it is imperative to increase women force to handle such crimes sensitively. However, attempts have of course been made to establish all-women police station to handle such cases, more needs to be done. The Congress manifesto of 2014 talks about increasing the strength of women in police force to 25% which is much below the Ratna Singh panel’s suggestion. However, most other parties are mum on the issue.

Is the judiciary better off?

The status of women in the Indian judiciary system is more worrisome. Law ministry’s figure released in 2013 states that the number of women judges in high courts is just 53 out of the 614 judges, which make the ratio at 1:10. Even in the Supreme Court, out of the 30 sitting judges merely two judges are women.

The role of women at presiding posts is also not very encouraging. Only four out of 24 high courts in India have women as their Chief Justices. Recently, G Rohini was chosen as the first women chief justice of the Delhi High Court. 

In the recent few days, some steps have of course been made to benefit women. The latest one included allowing maternity leave to women employees in government offices to two years. However, the government needs to give more prominence to the recommendations to different panels which studied condition of women in our country. Several significant suggestions have been provided to the government by such committees which included-flexibility of working hours, new norms on maternity leaves etc. Hope the next government finds ample time to ponder over the gender conundrum.

How realistic was Katju in Bihar

Editorial, Published in Bihar Times

The chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI) was recently in Bihar when he sparked yet another controversy when he said that media in Bihar is “gagged” and there is an “unwritten censorship” among the members of press. He went on to allege that the press do not enjoy full freedom under the Nitish Kumar-led government and whoever dares to write anything against the ruling government has to face the wrath of the state government.

Although, for many it was like an alien thing, but many subtly agree with the septuagenarian's  statement. There is large section in the state who believes that the media in Bihar has been gagged by the Nitish government. If sources are to be believed, some intellectuals, academicians and NGOs who strongly believe in this theory went to visit Katju and pleaded him to take stringent action over the issue. Following the controversy, the PCI led by Katju has now constituted a three-member-committee to investigate the matter.

Many allege, the total blackout of the Katju issue in some prominent newspapers was a clear evidence on how the government has influenced some media houses. The serious allegations labelled by the retired Supreme Court judge unfortunately did not get ample space even in some local newspapers which was a big story for some national media houses the same day.

But, questions must have knocked minds of many that how a government can control media in a state. “This is all based on the concept of ‘media management’ and ‘advertisement revenues’. After the JD(U)-BJP coalition government came to power in 2004, it started bombarding newspapers and other media houses with heaps of ads in the course of which many media houses made a good business. But the Bihar Chief Minister was very particular, those who used to glorify his government got numerous ads while whoever tried to be critical of the CM rule were devoid of government ad revenues,” says, a Patna based veteran journalist.

“But this is not new; this all started way back in the late 90’s when Nitish was the Railway minister under the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He started favouring newspapers who largely spoke in favour of the government by providing railway tender ads. So the concept of ‘media discrimination’ when it comes to ads was always there,” adds the septuagenarian journalist.

Moreover, the Bihar CM  has other tactics too, to be in news. “Nitish very well know how to keep good relations with the media. For this, he sometimes back used to throw tea parties on every Wednesdays and Fridays to keep a track on them and also to maintain cordial relationships. As a result, some newsmen spread a kind of ‘Nitish euphoria’ in front of the mass where the newspapers talked only about public announcements, inaugurations and growth rates. Many in this process forgot to do the ground work and got swiped away by what the government used to say. For them there was only development in the state and the state had gotten rid of all social ailments,” says another senior journalist under the condition of anonymity.

If an RTI activist from JNU, New Delhi is to be believed the rosy picture of the government as projected by some media is far from reality. According to him, Nitish is known in media more for his ‘media management’ rather than the development works carried out by him under his regime. He backs his statement by his RTI plea he filed in 2010 with the state IPRD department.

The information furnished by the department reveals staggering figures. It was found that after Nitish came to power he increased the amount given to media in forms of ads to four times compare to RJD’s regime. From 2005-2009, till Feb 28, 2010, the Nitish government spent Rs 64.48 crore on ads whereas the Lalu-Rabri government spent Rs 23.9 crore in six years.
On November 24, 2009, on the eve of the completion of Nitish’s four years as chief minister, he spent Rs 1.15 crore in a single day on ads given to 24 different national and regional media. A detailed report on the RTI revelations was published in “The Hoot” way back on April 12, 2010.
Another interesting fact is related to the radio industry, another form of media. A well placed source in the radio sector says, “The DAVP (Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity) rates are fixed in most of the cities but Patna and many cities are exceptions as FM radio has been launched here for the first time and DAVP has not fixed any rates. Big reason was that there is no competition here.

Secondly, the only private FM channel in Patna (people can easily guess who it is) managed to convince the IPRD officials that normal ad rates are 400/ 10 sec and govt will get 300/10 sec. Its was like a special discount of Rs 100 per 10 sec for the Bihar government. If officials wanted they could have got a rate fixed by DAVP. But don't know why they did not go for that. In places like Allahabad, the government pays Rs 60 for every 10 seconds of radio ads while in Patna the government pays Rs 300 for every 10 seconds for the same.”
But what came as a shock to the media fraternity was when a local news channel in Patna (Aryan TV) was blocked since it held a panel discussion on February 27 evening on the press freedom issue where a ruling politician from the ruling party, intellectuals and journalists were present. Well attempts to control media is not a new event. In the past, former chief minister of Bihar Jagannath Mishra was alleged to have made such an attempt when he introduced Press Bill. Indira Gandhi's example is an classic example. Some time back even, Mamata Banerjee also made an attempt when she tried to interfere with the accreditation of journalists.

Even when Anna Hazare was on his fast, the UPA-II government summoned select group of journalists to advice them not to give more coverage to Anna Hazare. The meeting was called by Information and Broadcasting Minister Renuka Chaudhary but many other Union ministers too attended the meeting.

I always remember the words of Dr M V Kamath, a veteran journalist and the former chairman of the Prasar Bharti and a very good friend of JP. The nonagenarian always used to tell us (He was our teacher in our college in Manipal, Karnataka and we were like his grandsons). "There has always been a bond between the media and politicians. But true journalism is all about been unbiased. Politicians will always be there to help you personally, never take any favour from them, be friends with them but never mix personal things with professionalism."

The tech-savvy Indian politicians

It seems now the Indian politicians have learnt to master a new art in order to getting closer to the mass, the art of peeping more into the cyberspace.

With the escalating interests of people from all walks of life into the internet-driven virtual world and with the social networking revolution the politicians are getting a good platform to spread their messages and also a chance to glorify the works they are doing.

Moreover, it is becoming an easy and affordable medium to propagate thier ideologies and also making their stand on certain burning issues to fetch the confidence of the people, may be in the hope that in return they will provide them with electoral votes during the elections.

The case of Nitish Kumar

Take the case of Bihar Chief Minster Nitish Kumar, the engineer turned politician has a blog which he exploites to tell the people regrading the achievements his government is getting. Also his blog has been regularly followed by 19,85 netizens all over the world.

Following the same line, BJP leader from the same state and also the deputy chief minster Sushil Modi through his Facebook account regularly keeps on sharing positive news items on the state on his wall.

Modi not behind

On the other hand, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to outperform the Bihari politicians. Modi’s blog is the most sophisticated and advanced which provides you with the facility to read his blog in nine different Indian languages besides space for gallery and media. His high-tech blog is also liked by 360, 976 people as of now.

Omar Abdullah also was heard of to be blogging sometimes ago but he halted due to some controversies emerging out of it.

When Shashi Tharoor was in soup

But how can anyone forget the informal brand ambassador of microblogging site ‘twitter’ Shashi Tharoor who had been in soup several times through his views on the site but many a times gave much popularity to him and also to the site, its another matter that the same also cost his post at the cabinet.

However the future seems to be brighter as Vice president Hamid Ansari already issuing I-pads to the Rajya Sabha members in order to make them tech-savvy and also Lok Sabha seems to work on the same.

But one thing for sure, although slowly the general stereotype of politicians being anti-modern is changing.

Moreover, with these steps the netas are reaching out to more number of people through simpler toils and investments. Also it is the best way to reach out to the young generation who are hard to reach through general Rallys and Yatras.

Nitish Kumar versus Narendra Modi

Bangalore, October 11, 2011: The much awaited Jan Chetna Yatra of BJP leader L K Advani finally kicked off from Bihar against the initial speculations of holding it in Gujarat. Conspicuously it knocked doors for speculations in the political arena as why the BJP leader was reluctant to utilise his party icon Modi in his Yatra and preferred the JD(U) leader from Bihar for the same.
Meanwhile, the saffron leader from Gujarat was also found to be missing in the mega-event where many prominent BJP leaders marked their presence. Surprisingly, the billboards, banners and colourful posters donning the images of all central and state BJP leaders flooded almost the whole of state capital of Bihar hardly witnessed a single image of the Gujarat chief minister.
It came as a surprise why the ‘Hindutva mascot’ and supposed to be a strong contender of the future PM was absent from the showoff. If certain experts are to be believed Nitish and Narendra Modi are the two strongest man and vote-pullers of the NDA coalition and certain section also claims both to be the strongest PM contenders at the same time. Then why the two famous stars of NDA was seen together.


Well reasons could be many. Now it is more of a Nitish versus Modi issue. The one time old friends are now preferring better to be seen apart. Nitish Kumar from his side is trying his best to keep his secular image in front of the people and barring himself to be seen with the known ‘communal element’ of the BJP after the Godhra riots. The relation between the two got bitter when a controversy broke out on an advertisement showing Nitish and Modi holding each other’s hand in a rally which was heavily utilized by the RJD and LJP leaders to questions Nitish’s secular image. The whole incident compelled Nitish to take harsh steps to secure his secular image. Part from canceling the dinner where Modi was supposed to come he also preferred to return Rs 5 crore provided by Narendra Modi for the Kosi flood victims just to save his image in front of the people.

Much celebrated CM’s
Apart from the issue, there are a lot of similarities between the two much celebrated chief ministers. At several points they give strong competition to each other. Many a times one can easily see how the duo are also learning from each other the better ways to connect to the people either through exploiting the cyberspace or through some othe means. But one must accept that the two have adopted several unique means to reach to the common people unlike other chief ministers of the country.
Take the case of Nitish Kumar, for the engineer turned politician, it seems inspired by the Bollywood film ‘Nayak’ (where Anil Kapoor who became CM of a day tried his best to get in touch with the common people), he moved ahead of it and did something that even Anil Kapoor in the film could do. The JD(U) leader started the concept of ‘Janata Darbar’ where he with his team comprising the state DGP and other powerful authorities meet the common people and listen to their grievances and act on the spot putting an example the innovative ways on how to go into the mass.
At the same time, Narendra Modi who does not want to compare Gujarat with any other Indian state but with the foreign countries trying in his ways to make at least Ahmedabad a high-tech city. Ranging from in house domestic gas pipelines to moving restaurants Ahmedabad and somewhat the whole Gujarat is undergoing a transition with the passage of time.
Also just look at the popularity of the two chief ministers who are on their way of creating a ‘feel good’ environment in their state unlike what once former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created in terms of garnering electoral votes. If you go by the social networking site orkut you can have the idea of their popularity. According to statistics Narendra Modi seems to excel Nitish with more than 100 orkut communities dedicated to Modi, some also claiming him to be the future PM while Nitish has around 50 such communities on orkut. But point noteworthy, there are some anti-Modi communities too as ‘I hate Narendra Modi’ unlike the JD(U) leader who has only pro-Nitish communities.
The two celebrated chief ministers also have learnt to exploit the cyberspace strong enough to peep into the people of their state. Both the chief ministers are bloggers. For instance, Nitish’s blog is followed by 19,85 people whereas Modi going more high-tech has made the facility of reading his blog in nine different Indian language and marked by 359, 976 likes. Whatever be the case, but one thing is for sure they have learnt how to get into the mass, the art few of the chief ministers have learnt and the results are in front of the people.

Nitish Euphoria and the media of Bihar

(An Overview of the media representation of Bihar in last 5 years)

By- Manish Kumar

Introduction:

There was a phase in the past when the media of Bihar was regarded as aggressive and upright. They were against injustice, corruption and establishment. A large number of remarkable and commendable works in the field of media were done in the past by many journalists which in turn gave them fame and appreciation at national level and even international level. The erstwhile media was more inclined and honest to the inhabitants. The tedious and applauded grassroot level works of the well known developmental journalist P Sainath in the poorest districts of Bihar made him the icon of print journalism in India who is now the inspiration for many aspiring journalists.

But with the passage of time the form, number, language, multiplicity and representation of Bihar changed drastically especially in the last five years. So what changed in Bihar in the last five years? An obvious answer that will come instantly in the minds of the readers will be the government. Of course five years ago a massive change occurred in the state when the mammoth 15 years of RJD rule by Laloo Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi culminated. On Nov 24^th 2005, the state was handed over to Nitish Kumar as he was awarded with the throne attached crown as the new CM of Bihar.

After Nov. 2005 the media representation of Bihar drastically changed. From local regional media to national and international media started talking about Bihar. A bundle of positive stories started emerging from different media house. It got more heighted when Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced the GDP of Bihar as 11.03%, the second highest in India second only to Gujarat. From then Bihar is only developing from the point of view of media of Bihar. Nitish Tidal Waves blew in the state which set the mind of the state media to follow a set trend. A “Nitish Euphoria” started developing in the state for which the media is largely responsible. The state government managed media in such a way that the people can see only the positive side of the government and its policies. But before I make my point and debate on the issues concerned let’s have a walk to flashback of 70’s, 90’s and the last one decade.

There was a time during 1975 when the revolution against imposing emergency in India lead by Jay Prakash Narayan from Bihar glorified Bihar as an active state of India. His famous ‘student movement’ against the forceful will of then prime minister of India Indira Gandhi showed the courage of the students of the state to fight for democracy. Once the seat of one of the world's most glorious empires, the state was first devastated by colonial policies that enshrined feudal landlords, then shunned by a succession of Indian governments, and finally destroyed when the seeds of caste and class conflict matured into a small-scale civil war in the 1970s

Later ruling of Bihar especially by RJD in the 90's took Bihar backwards. There was no encouragement for alien investors. Roads were at their worst. Law and order was nothing for the hooligans. At the end of the rule criminal activities were at apex. Everyone can recall the kidnapping case of DPS studying Kishley and the chain of kidnapping cases followed by that case during the regime of RJD in the early months of 2005.

Elections 2005:

Point noteworthy that in earlier elections in 2005 no single political party in Bihar got majority which forced imposing of President's Rule in 2005 but later the same year Janata Dal United (JDU) lead by Nitish Kumar and its alliance with BJP were able to form a stable government in Bihar.

The citizens of Bihar had many expectations from Nitish after the 15 years RJD's rule. They were demanding for the basic facilities. The state capital of Bihar-Patna for example was devoid of a proper drainage system. Working women were scared to remain outside home after 7pm. The administration was not cooperative to the common people. There were hardly any investments from any industrialists in Bihar and people were forced to migrate outside for jobs. There were hardly any good national colleges in Bihar and so even the student class was also forced to move outside for their higher studies. Even he agreed that the path would not be smooth and many things need to be done for the welfare of Bihar, to uplift the status of Bihar.

This was the case pre 2005 but the later picture was very different as told by different media house. Actually the whole representation of media changed drastically post 2005.. After Nitish Kumar took the charge of Bihar in the same year it changed the view of media and the way it portrays the state. It was November 24th 2005, when after many speculations for the 31st chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar took the charge of Bihar. It was an end to the massive 15 years ruling of Rastriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Laloo Prasad Yadav and partially by his wife Rabri Devi.

Media Coverage before 5 years:

Earlier excluding the last five years, last twenty years was a time where media representation of Bihar was entirely different. There was nothing very special and positive from that state. Media used to cover scams, poverty, development stories and stories related to life of Laloo Prasad Yadav who was more famous for his comic character and the way he talked. Media used to cover how he celebrated Holi or chat. Besides that lots of ground work was done by the media people in those era. Bihar was a state were journalists used to learn the basics of development stories.

Let us have a look on the media reports and coverage of that time. The era of late 80’s and 90’s and early 2000’s. The very noted journalist of present time P Sainath was given fellowship from Times of India to work on his ideas. He travelled to the poorest districts of India and covered many rural stories on the life of the poor and the underprivileged. In Bihar he went to many remote villages of districts like Chapra, Samastipur, Palamu (now in Jharkhand) and many other places. He told stories from these places on how the poor are exploited, how they are devoid of the very basic things. The result was that many of his stories brought changes to the people of those rural remote villages. He compiled most of his works in a book named as “Everybody loves a good drought” which is now a reference for any journalism colleges in India.

Down to Earth on September 30, 1993 reported on the embankment issue titled “The Embankement War” where they talked about the embankment issue of the Kosi river in Bihar which is the cause of tragic floods which costs many lives from time to time and is called as the sorrow of Bihar for the same reason.

On 28 February 1996 Outlook gave a review and detailed story about a scam in animal husbandry department titled “Crores from Chicken feed”. It talked about the scam in the state where the officials from different districts became a part of the scam and for their personal welfare did not care for thereal cause for which the money was given.

Outlook also on Dec 08, 2002 in an article titled ‘Banian Tree’ talked about the participation of Laloo Prasad Yadav in an upcoming film named Padmshree laloo Prasad yadav. It talked about his desire to work for it. His connections and love for bollywood. It talked about basically about his nature and desire for bollywood.

Down to Earth on June 30, 1999 reports Bihar Government critised by the high court for not implementing what the state High Court asked them to clear the bills for clearing the water logs but they did not. In a hearing the court criticized them and ordered them to do it as soon as it was possible.

Media coverage post 2005

Let’s have a look how the media reacted or represented Bihar in the last five years. Most of the media projected the state as a state moving towards development. Hardly anyone covered Bihar in a negative form. Almost all media forms came up with positive stories to show the state is booming in all aspects after the new CM took the charge. They glorified the growth and in a way and made Nitish Kumar a big star in media.

However the media got proper data to support their stories to show Bihar is growing and developing but at the same time it ignored other relevant data which contradicts the hypothesis they made. Few years back the state GDP was announced and it shocked people from different sections of the society. The GDP of Bihar reached 11.03% the second highest in the country, second only to Gujrat. There were many other data that supplemented the media in their stories. Before we analyze more on the representation of Bihar in media lets have a look on the coverage in the last five years.

Growth in infrastructure and basic things: When we talk about development in any state first of all we talk about the roads, electricity, water and other basic things. Roads in Bihar were known for its bad conditions. Newsweek in its story on the state titled “From worst to near first” by Jacob Overdorf (Dec 1, 2010) tried to depict the growth and development of the state in terms of some basic needs with the help of data. According to the media report the administration laid 6,800 kilometers of roads, built 1,600 bridges and culverts, and cut journey time in half in many areas. Car sales eclipsed kidnappings, as crimes by roving bandits fell steadily from 1,297 to 640 and kidnappings for ransom dropped from 411 to 66 between 2004 and 2008.

Talking about tourism growth it revealed Bodh Gaya, the site where the Buddha attained his enlightenment—the number of foreign tourists shot up from 95,000 to 356,000 over the past two years.

Vijay Simha came up with his story titled “Try me not society” in Tehelka (Feb 06, 2010) where he started with the story of Omar Heinzeen who was a resident of Bihar and after 2005 he came to settle in Bihar from Dubai and was all set to start his business in Darbhanga for road construction. This story was the onset of coverage of entrepreneurs coming to the state for its welfare. Later many other media house also tried to cover some other business people from Bihar who settled there to expand their business. The same story also covered the story of the famous Bollywood director Prakash Jha who is from Bihar. He told Tehelka that he already started working on construction of malls and opening of news channel in his state and encouraged others to invest in the state.

Caste and politics: After some time Tehelka again came up with another positive story by Ajit Sahi on the state titled ‘A tide in the affairs of Bihar’ which talked on various issues of development in the state and tried to find out the reasons of the growth in Bihar and the strategies by Nitish Kumar. In the story he said that the main reason of the positive side is - politics above caste. It said Nitish Kumar always talked about development and never on caste politics which made the man a more secular and a figure of development.

Data Game: Outlook in its cover story “Mind the shadows” by Lola Nayar tried to play with the available data. With the available data they showed that all crimes in the state have reduced and some of the major crimes were drastically reduced after 2005. The cases of murders, kidnapping and extortions came down appreciably which tried to improve the law and order in the state and gave a feeling among the people of the state that they are safe at their place.

But the same article of Outlook compared many other aspects of the state with the overall growth of India and showed that it has to go a long way. It depicted its performance in terms of immunization, roads, roads connected to villages, health, education, per capita income and many other things.

Health Sector: However when we talk about health sector in Bihar experts opine that it has shown improvement. New York Times (April 2010) in its story titled “Turnaround of India state could serve as a model” reported “2.5 million school-age children were not attending classes; by 2010 that number was reduced to fewer than 800,000. Clinics that had been seeing 30 patients a month because they had no medicine or doctors were staffed up and restocked. By 2006, the patient load had increased tenfold.”

Times of India in December 2009 reported “The face of government hospitals has drastically improved. Dr. R K Singh, Medical Superintendent, Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) state’s most reputed government hospital said, “In the last five years government hospitals have gone sea changes. Now more and more people are gaining faith in government hospitals and more number of people from all walks of life are coming to us fro treatment. Pollution control, medicine distribution and many other things were upgraded.”

Complaints dealings: You might have seen Anil Kapoor establishing letter box for the complaints to CM but Nitish was one step ahead. He urged to meet the common people face to face and thus introduced the concept of ‘Mukyamantri ka Janata Darbar' which was later changed to ‘Janata ke darbar mein Mukyamantri' where he solved the problems of majority of the people so quickly and he was accompanied with a team to do so that included the DGP of the state and other high officials. This was widely covered by the local media like PTN news, Bihar News and others.

Education: Talking about the education scenario in the state it also got revolutionsed as shown by local newspapers regularly. Times of India regularly covered education in the state. When it was announced that Bihar government can build one Indian Institute of technology (IIT) in Bihar Nitish Kumar generously gave 500 acres of land in Bihta (near Patna) for the establishment of the same. Now almost two years have passed and IIT in Patna is working well. Soon AIIMS in Patna is going to start. So the top most institutes in engineering and medical sciences are going to get rooted here.

Local media reported other educational matters of the state. Once upon a time Nalanda University in Bihar used to be a centre for national and International studies in India. But this historical University of India which glorified Bihar and India was closed and now one can see the ruins of this University in Nalanda almost 250 Kms from Patna. Nitish Kumar has the firm dedication to establish the same glory to Bihar and thus started working for the reopening of the same. Few months ago former president of India A P J Abul Kalam visited Nalanda and work to restore the University has begun. Noble Prize winner Amartya Sen has already given his consent for working in Nalanda University and recently Nitish discussed some plans with the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates for the welfare of Bihar.

Outcome

The outcome was of course evident in the state and was appreciated by the people of Bihar. The media to a large extent changed its representation of the state. Almost most of the national and even international magazine like- India Today, Outlook, Tehelka, The Week, Frontline and even international magazine like Newsweek came up with positive stories from Bihar. So the media which talked about crime, scams and caste politics reframed their minds and the whole scene was changed.

So the outcome was clear, it was predetermined by the different political party that Nitish has proved himself as a persona of development and the people of Bihar would give him majority of votes. Recently he was declared as the Best CM of the year by CNN-IBN and Hindustan Times in 2007 and Indian of the year-Politics 2008 and Reformer of the year 2009 by Economic Times.

Negative side of Media on Bihar:

The media got flowed up with the development stories. Most of them neglected the other face of the state, the still existing huge poverty, unemployment and many other things. Media ignored basically what the CM ignored from his side. The environmental problems and others were not projected nicely in the media. Everywhere only development and growth stories were shown.

One very important point that I want to make here is that when it comes to national media some of them do not get totally inclined to Nitish Kumar and do some homework. But when we talk about the regional and local media they show their full loyalty towards the government. Point noteworthy that the traditional media is getting corrupted the new emerging new media is becoming more authentic. The new media also checks, counters and corrects you through the unique feature of interactivity. It allows you to counter attack if you are biased or incorrect which the traditional media do not offer. The readers of this story can present their contradicting views if they want, or they can support and agree with my views. Let’s now try to do the autopsy of this kind of behavior by the traditional local media. Here are some points to ponder over-

Money driven media: A very interesting point to ponder over is that during the Nitish regime the media of Bihar made a very good business. The amount of money invested on publication of government advertisements in print and electronic media drastically increased. The Nitish government in the very first four years of their regime increased the amount spent on ads in media. They took annual ads placed in newspapers from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 25.25 crore. On November 24, 2009, on the eve of completion of four years of Nitish government, in a single day advertisements worth Rs 1.15 crore were given in 24 different national as well as regional dailies. Delhi and Patna based Hindi dailies such as Hindustan, Dainik Jagran, Prabhat Khabar and Aj had the lion’s share of around Rs 72.5 lakh. (Source: The Hoot, based on RTI filed by Afroz Alam Sahil).

So when the government becomes the agency of giving financial aid to the media it is difficult for them to be transparent and unbiased. This system of symbiotic relation between state government and the media hampers the authenticity and responsibility of media and in a way it is becoming more and more corrupt day by day. It is ironical when the medium which breaks the story of many corruptions becomes the victim of the same and then it loses their right to finger point on other.

The Dark Side of MNERGA: Just changing the name of any project and associating it with Mahatma Gandhi does not ensure transparency. MNERGA is a well known project where the many corrupt people can make good money at short time. They can easily exploit the illiterate and at the same time take the money meant for the poor living below the poverty line.

On December 2009 some NGOs organized a public meeting at the BIS building in Patna. Villagers from different parts of Bihar came there to share their experiences and obstructions they feel when it comes to MNREGA implement at grassroot level. Around 200 general people mostly illiterate villagers converged and shared their experiences. They shared how the mukhiya or the gram sevaks fool them because they are illiterate. In most of the cases when employment is not available they do not support the poor with unemployment allowance. They (villagers) told the authorities concerned how the gram sevaks take their signatures and withdraw the money and give them a small amount against the sanctioned amount of Rs 104. Point noteworthy that even villages not so far from the capital faced these problems. Villages not even 50 Kms away from the state capital like Panapur has suffered with these problems. There is a huge amount of existing corruption in MNERGA in Bihar.

Interestingly this news did not get space in Times of India the next day. The media hardly work on these issues. The era of developmental rural journalist P.Sainath has gone and is blurring with the passing days. The media need to learn journalism once again from the living legend and should have his book ‘Everybody loves a good drought” as a learning book for journalism if they forgot what journalism is all about. No media bothers to meet the requirements of the poor underprivileged people.

Kosi problem: From a long time the problem of Saptakosi River is existing. This problem is related with our neighboring country Nepal. The river is known as the sorrow of Bihar. It results in one of the most disastrous floods of Bihar. But none of the government thought out of a plan to find a permanent solution to this problem. Many a times the floods came and many of the lives was lost, livelihood and houses perished but nothing has been done till now as a permanent solution. In the election manifesto in year 2005 different parties offered different things but now even after five years nothing has been done for permanent solution. Following is the promise the parties gave to the people in their manifesto.

Usual rash of promises Bihar assembly election manifesto issues
	Dams in Nepal	Drainage	Embankment	Relief
Rashtriya Janata Dal	Only solution to flood control; state government helpless	No mention	No mention	Demands more money in disaster relief fund. Gloats on saving people with helicopters
Janata Dal (United)	Push Nepal to make dams	Desilt river beds; set up a technology mission	No mention	No mention
Lok Janshakti Party	Centre should talk to Nepal	Developing livelihood on waterlogged land a priority	Better embankments for 700,000 hectares of flood-affected land	Village-level training on disaster management. Distribute first-aid kits. Create flood proofing zone
Bharatiya Janata Party	No mention	Integrated water policy. Bridges along all canals, roads, railway to allow drainage	Expert team to assess maintenance, repair work Assess embankments that breach every year	No mention of disaster management. Need to empower fisherfolk and control riverbank erosion to prevent land disputes
Congress	No mention of dams. Need for a geological survey and new policy	Bridges along all roads for drainage. No mention of pucca roads in villages	No mention, but wants a re-look at entire flood control exercise (indirectly acknowledges mistakes of past Congress governments	No mention of disaster management or relief. Need for a flood proofing zone policy

*(Source-Down to Earth)

The Drama of Modi issue: If one can remember the time of election campaign in Bihar last year. Gujrat CM Narendra Modi was about to visit the state for campaigns as their party has coalition with BJP in the state. But something happened where Narendra Modi said that he helped Bihar during Kosi floods and this man returned the money worth 5 crore to him out of personal issues. The money was meant for the flood victims of Bihar but he did not care. Most media covered the story superficially and all they talked about the politics and power of Nitish kumar and Modi and the election consequences. Hardly anyone cared to go the flood affected area and see the real condition there. How much rehabilitation they got and what were the real situations at a time when the flood relief amount was returned. Only Star News did the job that visited the area and did a story on conflict of personal pride of Kumar and public welfare. The special show was named “Nitish Kumar ki Nautanki”.

The Modi issue was a clear issue which showed how the personal pride of the CM is far above then the general welfare of the public, that too far above then the welfare of the flood affected victims of the Kosi River.

Intra state disparity: Although the state government seems very happy for their recent GDSP of 11.18% but at the same time when we talk about GDDP (Gross District Domestic Product) it shows that GDDP of the capital as Rs. 37, 737 whereas district like Sheohar has recorded the lowest marked as Rs. 4398 showing critical intra state economic disparity.

DISTRICT	GDDP
PATNA	Rs. 37,737
MUNGER	Rs. 12,370
BEGUSARAI	Rs. 10,409
JAMUI	Rs. 5516
ARARIA	Rs. 5245
SHEOHAR	Rs. 4398

*(Source: Economic Survey for the year 2010-11, Bihar)

Poverty: According to National Sample Survey 2004-2005 show that the incidence of poverty defined as the percentage of the population below the poverty line in terms of monthly per capita expenditure was 42.1% in rural Bihar against 28.3% in rural India as a whole which is of course higher. Economic Survey 2010-11 says that price rise has been higher in Bihar than in India as a whole. Between 2007-08 and October 2010, the consumer price index for industrial labourers rose by 53 points in Bihar, whereas it rose by 48 points in India during the same time. This means that inflation in the state is badly affecting the lives of the poor people. Where is the media? Can’t they see these problems?

Moreover when we see the contribution of different sectors in the last one decade we can see a different picture when we compare it with the picture 10 years back. In Bihar more than 60% people directly or indirectly connected to primary sector whose contribution to the GDSP is decreasing with the passage of time it is difficult to ensure the welfare of all class of people.

SECTOR	CONTRIBUTION TO GDSP BEFORE 10 YRS	CONTRIBUTION TO GDSP NOW
PRIMARY	39%	21.74%
SECONDARY	10.5%	16.61%
TERTIARY	50.5%	61.65%

*(Source-Economic Survey 2010-11)

Mahatma Gandhi Setu: The very famous bridge made over the Ganga river which connects the state capital with the north Bihar is deterioting with the passage of time and from time to time some news of accidents comes into picture but the government has not made any concrete plan for a permanent solution. For media this is not an issue.

System for Batwari rule: The government has made its mind to implement a law where the lands of the rich people or even middle class people will be given to the farmers who work on the fields for some years. Actually many people have their land in villages and they deploy some poor farmers to take care of them and give some share for that but if the rule comes in action the lands which could be a legacy or bought with money some time by them will be freely gifted to them. This would reduce the income source for the middle and rich class people. This sounds a very irrational and unjust rule. But not much was spoken in media on that.

Nitish’s Vikas Yatra: Nitish Kumar not only works but he makes sure that people know that this man is working a lot for their welfare. Occasionally he starts so called Vikas yatra telling people what the government is doing for them. For this so private choppers are hired which costs appreciable if the yatra continues for more time. Hardly anyone questions him on the amount spent on this yatras which also includes staying at some good place during nights. In the last 5 years we have seen many positive stories in Bihar but that does not mean that Bihar has bloomed in every aspects. It does not mean that the problem of law and order is not there in the state or poverty has been eradicated. There are many problems existing in the state where there is need for the mainstream media to focus and bring the attention of the government.

Fewer investments: Although the government claims that investors and private players are keen to invest in their state and many players visit also to the state but not all of them really invest due to many factors. It’s more important to invest their rather than just visiting and giving the hope that they are satisfied with the state performance.

New York Times on 18 February, 2008 came up with a story titled ‘The Indian economic boom bypasses Bihar’ told about the problem of investments in the state. It said, “The World Bank loaned Kumar's government $225 million, but private investors have not been so enthusiastic. India's biggest industrialists have been visiting the state capital, Patna, but have kept their money firmly in their pockets.

The sad fact of Bihar is that it offers few or no raw materials, intermittent power, terrible roads, a reputation as a place where businessmen are kidnapped and some of the least business-friendly bureaucrats in the capitalist world.”

So there is need to wait for the real big investments to say that the situation has really improved.

Criminalisation of Politics: Although Nitish Kumar claims that their government is not run by criminals and he is very strict when it comes to breaking of laws by the tainted politicians and he does not allow them to do anything illegal. He always tries to make a very clear and pure image of himself and his party when it comes to organization of his party. But the recent revelation about the details of tainted politicians who got filed nominations was a surprise. The Party JDU who always took RJD and LJP for harvesting criminals in their party this time had the highest number of tainted candidates in the elections.

POLITICAL PARTIES	TAINTED CANDIDATES
BJP	41
JDU	31
NDA	72
RJD	57
LJP	13

*(Source: Election Commission of India)

Gap between Execution and Announcement: There is a good difference between the announcement of any project and proposals and real commencement and execution of the same. Upto 2010, the State Investment promotion Board (SIPM) approved as 398 project proposals with proposed investment of Rs. 1.82 lakh crore. But out of that only 45 have started working and 104 are said to be at an advanced state but there is hardly any news on the remaining 249 projects.

Supporting are liabilities: The support institutions of Bihar, instead of becoming assets, are themselves becoming liabilities. The Bihar State Financial Corporation (BSFC) and Bihar State Credit and Investment Corporation (BICICO), who were responsible to provide financial support to industries, are sick primarily due to poor recovery and are waiting for revival

Why the progress got so highlighted:

Self Censored Media: It will not be wrong to state that the traditional media of Bihar is going through a phase of self censorship where they hardly give emphasis on the negative side of Bihar. Of course it will be difficult for them otherwise they can lose a very good client with which they are enjoying a good symbiotic relationship. For them there is development everywhere. There are hardly any problems in the state. They can’t see that the basic things of the aam aadmi-Electricity, proper drainage, water, waste management is not touched by the government.

Online portals: There are around ten online portals on Bihar which keep the readers from all around the world updated on what is happening in Bihar. One benefit of these portals is that these are more global. Readers from all over the world can read it and express their opinions through comments. Biharis living all over the world read these portals and gets to know the updates from their motherland. They perceive what the portals say.

Social networking sites: The growth of social networking sites in the last 5 years is appreciable and with the passage of time it is going amore and more popular. One effect it had was sharing of news and views and encouragement to discussion and interaction. Biharis living in different parts of the world felt very proud in sharing positive stories which got published anywhere because they were used to listen only negative stories defaming Bihar. So they shared it in large on these platforms which helped them to spread the notion that Bihar is developing.

Better public relations: The present Bihar government worked hard to increase the PR department of the state. It dealt nicely and effectively with the people, NGOs, media and other concerned people. This better public relation helped further to spread the same notion. PR is very crucial in dealing with the outside people and the government felt the need and they worked hard on it and the outcome was favourable to them.

Better RTI system: In a recent survey last year Bihar came under top ten states of India where RTI was implemented and practiced nicely. The state government worked hard to make RTI simpler and effective. This helped the journalist, analysts, NGOs and other people concerned to know different issues in a better way.

Conclusion:

So from all the discussions we had above this the point I want to make is that in the last five years the media representation of Bihar has drastically changed. Hardly new investigative stories are done. If anyhow someone dares to do, they are discouraged by the owners of the media fearing the loss of ad revenue from the government. Some media houses are becoming the mouth piece of the state government.

There are number of problems in the state where the media needs to pay attention. Already media has lost credibility through many irresponsible behaviors in the past. If the media has to maintain its credibility it has to work honestly and the symbiotic relationship between the media and the government needs to be broken for the welfare of the people to maintain the dignity of journalism.