Tiger Abhi Zinda Hai

Nitish Kumar has managed to bring about a change conducive enough for both the baagh and the bakri to drink water from the same pond

- Sarthak Bagchi

THE massive mandate in Bihar to the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is being hailed as an outcome of a ‘dushazaari chunav’—a reference to the distribution of Rs 10,000/- each to almost 1.5 crore Jeevika Didis of Bihar. Many women beneficiaries of this scheme are reported to have used this money to buy goats, one of the most basic forms of animal husbandry businesses available to women in the state.

In this article, I will argue for the need to view this mandate beyond the lens of immediate monetary transaction and through a long-term security perspective.

Let me therefore begin this article with a story about goats that I had heard in Bihar back in 2015. A group of men from a Tatama tola in the Taal area of Mokama explained the meaning of susashan in the following words: “Nitish ji jo kiye wo asambhav tha. Law and order ka raj matlab baagh (tiger) aur bakri (goat) ekko saath talab se paani pi sakta hai” (Nitish ji has done the impossible. The rule of law and order established by him means now a tiger and a goat can drink water from the same pond at the same time). It was interesting that his example was set in a jungle to clearly establish the difference between the idea of Jungle Raj and Nitish Kumar's susashan raj.

In 2025 too, the election campaign reverberated with familiar sounds evoking the fear of Jungle Raj, along with a rehearsed cacophony of concerns over unemployment and migration, with most parties offering rather stopgap and ad-hoc policies of employment and fiscally imprudent policies of largesse and welfare distribution on a competitive mode.