Taking decisions merely on advice of few bureaucrats fails to deliver results: Tejashwi Yadav

In an interview with TNIE, Tejashwi Yadav says a task force with health, economy experts and public representatives should have been the first course of action during a corona crisis.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (File | PTI)
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (File | PTI)

"Be it Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar or any other CM, the first thing they should have done was forming a task force of health experts, economists and public representatives to deal with the corona crisis. Sharing this with Rajesh Kumar Thakur through an email interview, Bihar’s leader of Opposition Tejashawi Yadav said taking decisions merely on the advice of a handful of bureaucrats by ignoring public representatives fails to deliver the results. Excerpts:

Bihar is battling against COVID-19 with increasing number of positive cases daily. How do you rate the response of the state to check it?
Beyond front pages of newspapers, there is nothing but chaos and huge resentment among the general public because of the poor handling of this whole situation emerged on account of the outbreak of COVID-19 with ever-growing number of positives cases. The state preparedness to deal with this situation is not matching the requirements. Simply put, the response of the state has been haphazardous, which has only aggravated the misery and agony of our people and the slow testing rates have aggravated the problems. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar constantly changes his stand be it earlier on the CAA or now the migrants issue or whatever else issue has emerged. Does he lack foresightnesse or decisiveness, is beyond anyone's comprehension.


If you were the CM of Bihar right now, what would you have done?
Even in my capacity as LoP, many of the suggestions I made to the Bihar government were adopted by the central government and other state governments except Nitish Ji, who perhaps didn’t work on them out of complex and feeling of being dwarfed by a young chap like me. That being said, the first thing any CM should have done was forming a task force of health experts, economists & public representatives to deal with this crisis. With their consultation, a proactive approach aimed at maintaining equilibrium between lives and livelihood should have been the single agenda for the government. All the time you can’t take the decisions merely on the advice of handfuls of bureaucrats by ignoring public representatives, who have hands-on experiences and knowledge of actual ground realities. In future, if I am given the opportunity by the people, my actions will speak for themselves.

As a leader of Opposition, are you not heard by the Bihar chief minister?
If you assess the performances of last few years, Nitish ji has bluntly failed on the parameters of administration, communication and taking positive suggestions of opposition also. He asks himself, denies himself, urges himself and raises his hands to himself. His one-point agenda is to go opposite to
the suggestions of opposition. I don’t mind whether he listens to me or not but as I listen to the people, the people wholeheartedly listen to me reposing trust in us.

Now, migrants and students are being brought and still you lambaste the state government. Why?
It has become possible only because of the persisting demand of RJD to bring back the migrants and students. The state government was adamant to not bring them citing a bunch of flimsy reasons. When the RJD offered to arrange 2000 buses, the state government realised that the issue may soon be beyond their control as it started gaining people’s sentiment. So now the migrants and the students are being brought. But look at how they are being placed in quarantine and a number of them had escaped from Katihar just because of miserable conditions. As long as all the issues related to migrants and the poor people of the state are not sorted out, the RJD will never stop fighting against the government’s inability and lack of willpower to redress the people problems.

As the government claims that Bihar is the first state in the country to provide financial assistance to the migrants stuck outside. Are you satisfied with this initiative or find it true?
A long duration of nationwide lockdown has elapsed but what the state government has done is like offering a small chocolate bar to a hungry person. With a peanut of one thousand rupees, do you think anyone can eat properly for the full duration of the lockdown, leave alone other things? Even this cash assistance could not be availed by majority of migrant labourers due to several anomalies like account should be of Bihar branches, photograph mismatch, aadhar seeding etc. Nitish Ji has a habit of premature hatching of eggs and taking its credit.

On Kota issue, now the state govt after initial refusal, has started bringing the students and thousands of them have arrived till date. How as a responsible opposition, you view it?
I was shocked and appalled to see how Nitish Ji had outrightly refused to bring back those young students from Kota. Setting aside politics for a moment, he himself is a father and should have emphatically thought what those children & their parents would be going through and should have started bringing them back much earlier. I relentlessly pursued this matter with the government, sought permission to bring them back on my own and even offered buses to the government for their transport when it surrendered citing lack of resources. Whatever is being done by the government has been possible just because of mounting efforts of the Opposition. If you observe Nitish ji’s politics, you will find up to what extent his coterie enjoys privileges. A pass to BJP MLA is only a hint to his exclusionary politics. He is discriminatory to common people always. All migrants should been have brought back to Bihar earlier in comfortable and safe transport. 

Do you support decision of state govt on the relaxations given to some sectors amid the lockdown?
You see a country like us cannot afford to have a prolonged lockdown. Economic activity has to begin sooner or later. But the government must have a roadmap as to how it would allow activities to resume without allowing resurgence of this virus. This lockdown period gave us enough time to strategize on future course of actions which Bihar government seems to be not utilizing at all. Similar to what anti-virus software does to a computer, massive testing would have killed this coronavirus. But sadly Bihar remains one of the most under-tested states in the country.

Are you satisfied with the pace of testing in Bihar?
No, not at all. Testing continues to be very slow in Bihar. I have been demanding to ramp up testing from day one. Right from WHO to our epidemiologist, they have unanimously agreed to maximise testing. Bihar being the third most populous state in the country, the risk of the spread is higher than other states. Therefore, I once again request Bihar government to do massive testing which is when we will be able to defeat this killer virus.

Did RJD help the migrants, who were stuck in other states?
We were the first party to launch helpline to stranded labourers outside the state. The Bihar govt set up the helpline 5 days after us when people started questioning the govt. If you see my timeline on Twitter, we worked relentlessly to reach out to them and provide every possible assistance with the help of respective state governments, our state party units, personal contacts and local representatives. The numbers would be several lakhs but that not the question, we are happy to help them and are doing so even today. Politics for me is a medium to serve people and I am more than happy in doing so.

The NDA always brands you of having escapist attitude from the scene whenever a problem for public in state has emerged like the AES outbreak in 2019 and now the Covid-19. What you have to say to them?
What do you expect; JD-U leaders will praise me and my party for doing wonderful job of helping stranded migrants across the country with food, ration and money. They have nothing substantial to talk about their work and hence the accusation to hide their failures. They are defensive and pensive on our excellent accomplishments, carried out for fellow citizens. They are in power due to the robbery of mandate. Isn't it govt’s responsibility to fight this pandemic? It's their job to ensure nobody dies due to starvation and lack of medical care. It’s their duty to rescue migrant labourers stranded outside the state. Savage personal attacks on me and my family might help them to save their skin but does not serve the interests of the state. Why do they think that is Tejashawi so capable that he should help and guide them always? This just justifies that Bihar’s opposition is so strong that they always feel the
heat.

Politically speaking, what would be the fate of NDA in the coming elections?
NDA’s political doomsday has started and fast approaching and be sure, the people have got fed up with its rhetoric based and backed politics. The people’s punishment will be so stringent in the elections to come that one will cite the result in the history of politics.

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