Bihar’s Assembly election is a victory of secularism, democracy and of the people of the state in general.

The incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has won this battle on development plank, as he has done a lot of development work in this major state of India.

The election was unnecessarily projected as a political tug of war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish, with unfortunately the former pitching in for divisive politics and a policy of intolerance.

The people opted for the secular party led by combined leadership of Nitish, Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress party, voting massively to give a clear mandate to the parties that stand for the secular principles of the country.

Modi and his party President Amit Shah failed to galvanize the nation on hate politics that was launched by the communal forces and which Modi preferred to turn a blind eye to. This huge defeat of the communal party will certainly have an effect on the upcoming assembly elections in Assam next year and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

People of Bihar have given a clear message that current Prime Minister Modi and his men cannot be trusted. It also shows that Dadri incident, where an innocent man was killed on the issue of what he eats inside his house, will not be tolerated any more. The election has negated misplaced opinions of celebrities like Anupam Kher, who had taken out a procession only to please Modi.

The country is reeling under high inflation with the prices of essential commodities like pulses touching the sky. This all compounded to defeat Modi, who only 16 months ago had assumed power riding on a mammoth nationwide mandate.

Athar Naseem Alig

Riyadh