The Indian state of Bihar must be grabbing international headlines today.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got a decisive drubbing at the hands of the secular alliance in the state assembly election and thus for the time being has given much arm to the secular forces that were till now keeping low in face of strident communal forces led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

Modi is the same person who had presided over the infamous Gujarat massacre in 2002 when at least 2,000 Muslims were summarily butchered at his behest. But he rose on the plank of development and in 2014 hoodwinked the whole nation to win a massive mandate to rule the country.

Very soon people realized that they have elected a wrong person who is now a “national” chief minister of Gujarat than India’s prime minister. Egged on by his silence on a spate of violent incidents against Muslims in the country, the hoodlums in the Hindutva forces had created havoc by terming India as a Hindu nation and asking Muslims and other minorities to leave the country.

But the combined secular forces led by popular leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, not to forget Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, have routed Modi and his unholy alliance in the assembly elections that will surely have its significance on national level in times to come. I term its as victory of tolerant forces over the communal elements.

Shamimur Rahman

Alkhobar