ABSTRACT
While the “shining India” was gaining the attention of the world through its IT industry, booming economy, and a growing middle class, Bihar continued to remain backward, with symptoms of a failed state. The lawlessness and serious criminal incidents, especially kidnapping of young children for ransom, along with a brutalized, corrupt, politicized police force, suggested signs of deterioration. The profile of former Chief Minister Lallo Yadav as a rustic buffoon and an opportunistic and corrupt politician added more to this impression than anything else. Furthermore, the continuing caste conflicts, mass killings, and helplessness of the police in handling crime, maintaining order, and dealing with the growing attacks by Naxalite groups (Maoist communists) added to the alarming perception that Bihar had gone beyond the precipice.
