Editorial...

Rise and Awake to avenge Bihar's humiliation !

All eyes are now centred on four dates set by the Election Commission for Bihar elections. It is yet another golden opportunity for BJP-JD(U) alliance to go to the people and help them realise this goal: "Lalu hatao, Bihar bachao" (Remove Lalu, save Bihar). For this both the parties must reach out to every person in the State to seek their support. The Bihar election is not an ordinary elections; it is an unusual event in the history of electoral politics in the country. It is, in fact, turning out to be a trial of Sonia-Lalu-Buta trio in the Court of the people for the heinous crime of murdering democracy in Bihar. On completion of the electoral process for Bihar assembly in February last the elected representatives were handed over their certificates of election. But, under UPA government directions Bihar Governor Buta Singh indulged in foeticide of the yet not formally born Vidhan Sabha just to prevent formation of a popular government. That has been brazen affront to democracy and the will of the crores of people who voted in the election.

JD(U) leader Shri Nitish Kumar and BJP leadership have already been knocking every door of the people since April as a part of their massive mass contact programme through the Nyaya Yatra. They should now complete the process of allotment of party nominations at the earliest and then move forward on their election campaign without loss of time. The workers of both the parties should now concentrate all their energies and attention only on their goal to win the Bihar election with the same commitment as did Arjuna set his aim only on the eye of the fish he had to strike with his bow in Mahabharata. Whoever gets the party nomination to fight the assembly elections must win at all costs. That should be the spirit and the guiding principles of our leaders and workers. If they move with that determination in their mind, success is sure to kiss their feet; no doubt about it. People too are yearning to have a government which enjoys a comfortable majority to give them a stable government.

The Bihar electorate has a very limited choice: whether they want to be ruled by a government they chose or by the mafia which caring a fig and wielding a lathi treats people like a herd of cattle. These elections are providing an opportunity to tell who is the boss: the people or the Sonia-Lalu-Buta coterie? People have to reiterate their resolve to protect and preserve democracy at all costs. Every individual has to be infused with the spirit to come out on his own to protect democracy in Bihar. This, in turn, will go a long way to strengthen democracy in the whole country. The people of Bihar must give out the message right and clear that it is the common man who is the master and not the butchers of democracy. It is the duty of the people having faith in democracy to rise as one man against the forces of dictatorship working to promote the interests of their families at the cost of the people. They have to show their strength lest the UPA dare not indulge in such nefarious activities again, not only in Bihar but all over the country. Mrs Sonia Gandhi turned Congress as her family's pocket burough. So has done Shri Lalu Prasad to RJD. Both have collectively conspired against democracy and the people in Bihar.

BJP and JD(U) leaders and workers should stoke their full strength in the month of October-November to exhort the people of Bihar to come out of the narrow grooves of casteism and to concentrate on nationalism and future of the State. Bihar cannot get salvation from the poison of casteism; it is only the nectar of nationalism that can salvage it from the mire to which it had been pushed down all these 15 years under Lalu-Rabri misrule. It is time to bring Bihar people back to the national stream of progress and development.

It is also a trying and challenging time for those natives of Bihar who, for some reason or the other, are living in other parts of the country. It is an hour of crisis for their State and it is their duty to come to the help of their suffering brethren who still continue to live in Bihar so that they too can have a glimpse of what democracy and development means. They should go the whole hog to help their native people by helping them with all their mite and means to get their State rid of the nefarious Lalu-Rabri regime. In the liberation of Bihar lies their own liberation because their roots are still there in their own State and these must be strengthened and not weakened.

Bihar is the sacred land of Lord Buddha, Lord Mahavira, King Ashok the Great, Chanakya, Chandragupta, as also of great men like Vidyapati and Mandan Mishra. For people of Bihar there could be no greater misfortune and painful disgrace than today being known as the Lalu-Rabri State. To make the English quit India, Mahatma Gandhi had launched the "Quit India Movement" from the sacred soil of Bihar in East Champaran. He succeeded and ultimately the British had to leave India for good. The people of Bihar have to launch a similar movement to dump Lalu-Rabri in the dustbin of elections. Once the people of Bihar unite, no power on earth can stop it from being liberated from the clutches of those opposed to the principles of democracy.

The people of Bihar are, no doubt, politically more agile and alert. It is the duty of every worker of BJP and JD(U) to once again ignite that very now latest awareness in each and every citizen of Bihar and turn it into a people's movement. The whole nation stands as a rock with with the people of Bihar in their fight against injustice.