With Bihar continuing to lag behind and stay at the bottom of development/socio-economic ladder despite two long decades of Sushasan Babu; with political decline of Lalu/Nitish and both unable to rise above identity/caste based politics; and with Bihar BJP not being able to throw a credible face over all these years, there has certainly been a growing vacant space for a political discourse which is democratised, identity-agnostic, bottom-up, aspirational, issue-based, solution oriented, people-centric, development-oriented and accountability driven.
For effecting a decisive shift towards such a political discourse in Bihar, the required socio-political awakening never reached a critical mass there. Also, a credible State level change agent or a political face without an identity baggage - someone who could rally Biharis out of their prevailing parochial caste-ridden mindset and who could show them the vision - as to why & how their future could possibly be better and in sync with these times, could never rise from within to the challenge.
As such, walking the talk and sticking to the process & the method - how to get people out of current morass without being "more of the same" kind, and how to be different and yet not be out of place, was never an easy task by any standards. Waking up a giant from deep slumber had to be a daunting challenge. Some of the imperatives in this regard were: the disadvantaged voices on the ground had to be heard, the issues of common man had to be understood & recognised, the weak & ignorant needed to be handheld, the caste & religious identity differences had to be blurred, the burning socio-economic issues needed to be spoken loud & clear, the accountability for present ills required to be fixed & underlined, bottom-up solutions to impending localised & common problems needed to be highlighted, and so on & so forth. In other words, the field needed to be painstakingly nurtured and prepared well before the harness.
With his homework done well enough, PK has rightly sensed all of the above and has come prepared to explore & prepare the turf in his own data driven way. What could be more apt than his choice of leveraging the time-tested & potent Gandhian approach towards ushering in change. PK understands the fact well that Mahatma still remains so relevant today and could be handsomely leveraged. Remember JanSuraj Abhiyan commenced its journey from Mahatma's Champaran.
Patiently traversing across each and every block & district of Bihar, spending time with people in both urban areas & in hinterlands, listening to people's woes, getting to know & understand their localised & common issues up close, having a dialogue and communicating with people in their own language & accent, giving hope & confidence to the beleagured masses, presenting himself as a son of the soil and as the man next door, putting forth a new strategic vision and urging people to join in, PK's JanSuraj endeavour appears to have started reasonably well.
For a person of his background who had spent most of his time outside Bihar, ushering in a new vision for Bihar and a churn towards a breakthrough in Bihar politics, required this patient slow participative but very effective & time-tested padyatra outreach across the length & breadth of State.
So far PK has made the right moves - right process & right approach, and if he continues on the same path with same patience & diligence, he would get people to buy into his vision for a new Bihar. Once his efforts hit a critical mass, the new discourse in Bihar may take a geometric progression towards some big formative change.
With the promise shown thus far, PK can be that agent of change for year 2025 that zillions in Bihar are yearning and hoping for. Who knows! It is anybody's guess today. Already some have started seeing a political future with him and are already lining up to him. Where and what PK's JanSuraj Abhiyan would lead upto, no one can predict today. As of now, all one can say is that PK's second innings has had a reasonable start. Only time will tell if PK successfully rises upto the challenge and is able to fulfill the promise.
p.s. In his interviews, PK shares that his JanSuraj Abhiyan is being financed out of the social capital that he has earned over the last ten years. He informs that his "friends" from different walks of life, across the nation, are financing his endeavours in Bihar. But no one yet knows who are these "friends" of his. He also claims to receive these friendly contributions to JanSuraj Abhiyan, by cheque. This means that the Government of the day knows well who all are financing him. However, the people of Bihar who PK intends to lead in future, don't yet know who are paying the JanSuraj bills.
Standard of ethics & morality dictate that PK makes sources of JanSuraj funds public, without any delay. If he has to play above board and has to live up to his promise, then he must strive to be as transparent & accountable, as he could. As they say, seeing or perceiving is believing. BJP's B team tag must be effectively dispelled by PK & his team, sooner than later.
