Patna: Former poll strategist and Jan Suraj campaign convenor Prashant Kishore has dismissed the economic data presented in the caste survey report by the Bihar government, terming it as “fake.” Kishore, known for his strategic acumen, expressed his skepticism during a conversation with reporters in Madhubani.
While addressing the media, Kishor stated, “While doing the Padyatra, I tell my gathering every day that 80% of people in Bihar, i.e., 80 out of 100 men, do not earn Rs 100 a day. The figures released by the government are fooling the people. Even the household holding is low, leave apart individual income.”
He further pointed to global data, saying, “Look at the figures of the World Bank and see that 80% of the people of Bihar do not earn Rs 100 a day. There is no need to see Nitish Kumar’s survey report to know this. This data is available on the internet for everyone to see.”
Kishor took a dig at Bihar leaders, challenging the credibility of the reported daily wage of Rs 300. “Suppose a man in a family gets a wage of Rs 300 and there are 5 members in that family, then each member gets Rs 60 per day. Not only this, if a person got wages only for 15 days in a month, the per capita income of one person was only Rs 30. What can be said when the people here do not understand?” he remarked.
In a broader critique of Bihar’s leadership, Kishor observed, “In Bihar, the leader is the one who neither knows the language nor the subject; the society considers the one who wears a ganji over his shirt as a grassroots leader. The one who never went to school in his life, who failed and sat on the back bench, is the leader here.”
Highlighting the paradox, he added, “See the irony that the same thing shows that development is taking place. The leader may not know how to write ‘Harsai’ and ‘Dirghai’ in development, but he is giving a long speech on development.”
