This is a history-making election year for Bihar

Gopalkrishna Gandhi / HT

This is a Bihar year.

• The state of Bihar itself came into existence 80 years ago this year, by a provision of the Government of India Act, 1935.
• India became a Republic 65 years ago, in 1950, with a great Indian, born to Bihari parents, Rajendra Prasad, becoming our first President.
• Forty years ago, in 1975, a brave and noble son of Bihar, Jayaprakash Narayan, was taken into custody under the National Emergency of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
• And 25 years ago this year, in 1990, Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya was stopped in Samastipur, Bihar, by the then chief minister Lalu Prasad.
• Eighty, 65, 40, 25 make landmark anniversary years. Such anniversaries are called ‘musical’ or ‘chiming’ anniversaries. Together they make 2015 an important year, an anniversary-filled year, for the state and the people of Bihar.

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If the victory in Bihar is of political choices the Bihar of Rajendra Prasad, Srikrishna Sinha and Jayaprakash Narayan would have won, with another ‘chiming’ anniversary entering future history. more