Will Congress say yes? Patna: apart from the violence on the streets, the JD[U] leaders have been busy garnering support for their government. According to a report, the Congress is now likely to vote in favour of Mr Kumar’s government, in a late night development. If that happens, Nitish’s government will be securely in majority and safe from immediate danger. And yet this dependence adds an element of risk for JD[U] in the long run! Nitish Kumar’s Bihar government faces a trust vote in the state legislature today. His party, the Janata Dal United or JD(U), has 118 legislators.... 

  BJP-JD[U]: betrayal through fisticuffs!Patna: there were some ugly scenes staged around the Beerchand Patel Marg, an area where the political parties have their offices in Patna. Two days after the Janata Dal (United) called it quits with Bharatiya Janata Party, the friends-turned-foes on Tuesday clashed outside the BJP office here, leaving many injured. While the principal opposition party observed ‘Vishwasghat Diwas’ across Bihar, JD(U) and BJP workers beat each other up with bamboo sticks and iron rods in Patna during the shutdown, injuring nearly half a dozen workers of... 

  Modi: the divisive factor! Accusing the BJP of forcing it to walk out of the alliance by not being forthcoming on Narendra Modi’s future role, senior JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari on Saturday said that the announcement of a split in the coalition was a “mere formality” now. Tiwari also dubbed Modi as an “arrogant” and “divisive personality” who cannot take all sections along. Interestingly, the JD[U] has refrained from making ‘communalism’ or the Gujarat riots as the main issue in its several statements. This comes after jairam Ramesh, the Congress... 

   By T N Jha Vegetable export: Kaimur Bihar, of late, has been the focal point of national debate, inflamed largely by the political heat generated by MNS led tirade against Bihari immigrants in Mumbai. This seems to be gaining and becoming pan-Indian, as, reportedly, in other parts of the country as well, the non-acceptance of Bihari workers is getting further momentum. This, on the flick side of it, has certainly aroused Bihari sentiments and sub- nationalism across all those living in or out of Bihar, which historically remained, more as a sequel to colonial legacies, deeply divided and... 

  By Ratnakar Tripathy Mutual Bowing: easy for warriors! The proposition is simple – Laloo and Nitish would make an unbeatable combination in Bihar today. Refuting this proposition is just as simple – just use the word impossible, and everyone down to the last illiterate peasant in Bihar knows why! The reason pure and simple is ‘egos’. The egos of two men who have been too close in the past and then too distant to come together. So am I asking conjoined twins, who managed to separate themselves successfully, to come back and attach themselves again? No, not at all. It’s in fact more... 

  By Dr. T. N. Jha      Agriculture: a mainstay! Needless to emphasize, the foodgrain production in India has recorded impressive increase from a mere 82.0 million tones in early sixties to 218.0 million tons in 2009-10. With favourable and even spread of south-west monsoon, it is expected to reach all time high of around 231.0 million tons in 2010-11. This is often taken to argue, both in the academic and policy circles that India has overcome the problem of chronic food shortages, as it used to be the case till late sixties and become self-sufficient to meet its domestic foodgrain demand.... 

  Small town: big dreams! Patna: there are some changes in Bihar that are outrightly visible. The network of roads wherever you travel, the girls on bicycles you see along the levees and footpaths from a distance, regular movement of people and traffic at night indicating safety. But there are other less visible changes that now need to be taken note of. These relate to both the growing status and the boldness of the village girls, and of course the rise of small town Bihar, indicated in the facts below. According to recent reports, in this year’s Intermediate of Arts (IA) examination... 

    An insecure seat! Patna: according to reports, raids conducted by the state vigilance investigation bureau and the economic offence unit (EOU) of the state police on Thursday yielded disproportionate properties worth about Rs 20 crore. Among those raided are a motor vehicle inspector (MVI), Girish Kumar, Ramchandra Sharma, an executive engineer in building construction department at Patna and Awdhesh Kumar Mandal, an executive engineer of building construction department. The police seized documents relating to properties worth over Rs 4.50 crore from Sharma’s premises. Director... 

By Dr T N Jha Measuring growth: inch by inch! The miracle growth performance of Bihar in recent years has been intensely debated, some even doubting it, by the academics, planners, policy makers and media personnel. The purpose of the present write up is not to prove or disprove such claims, but to simply share some of the insights on the changing face of rural Bihar based on the perceptive understanding as obtained in the course of collective interaction with select villagers of Mohammadganj panchayat falling in the remote eastern parts of Supaul district. Methodologically, it must be admitted,... 

  Editorial note: even as debates rage on the state and the fate democracy in India, how about the little matter of democracy within the party? Paradox number 1- party structures, whether in the Congress or the numerous regional formations may now be safely declared as MORE [and this is a serious proposition rather than condemnatory rhetoric]   feudal than the remotest of villages in Andhra, UP, Karnataka, Bihar, Kerala or well, incredibly the North East, including even more incredibly Mizoram. And this includes the Left broadly, the  CPM, CPI or the extreme Marxist- Leninist- Maoist...