Brand Bihar finds itself a trademark

Resurgent Bihar, the brand Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been promoting as fervently as Narendra Modi has been promoting that of Vibrant Gujarat, has now got a symbol.
Made of red marble brought from Katni in Madhya Pradesh, and carved out by eight sculptors from Italy who worked on it over a month, the symbol holds centre-stage in Patna’s Centenary Memorial Park, which Nitish inaugurated on Monday to mark the 100th year of Bihar’s statehood. The abstract, spiral sculpture, part of it depicting a chisel and a hammer, is meant to showcase the “true spirit of Bihar’s people leading to its resurgence”.

The making of Brand Bihar since November 2005 has included 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats; bicycle schemes for girl students, and pioneering anti-corruption measures such as mandatory declaration by assets by all government employees but peons. Nitish sought to package the brand last March when the government observed Bihar Diwas in Patna and Delhi to mark the centenary of statehood. Now, he said, “the symbol carries the message that the people of Bihar are deeply committed and have set themselves a target to restore it to its past glory.”

He dislikes any comparison with Modi but did point out that Bihar has grown faster than Gujarat. “With a 14 per cent growth rate in 2010-11, Bihar has gone ahead of all other states including last year’s topper Gujarat,” he said. “We had to toil hard to achieve this. This centenary park salutes the true spirit of Bihar.”

The one-acre, triangular park is at Saguna Mod near Danapur Cantonment, at one end of Bailey Road. It was built by Indian and Italian artists at Rs 4.98 crore and is mostly granite and marble. Dazzling lights make it stand out from a distance.

At the entrance is a quadruplet, in Hindi and English, which helps define the Resurgent Bihar brand:

Shaping fortune with steely hands/Resuscitating the lost glory of the land/Making a new Bihar with sweat of their brow/ Hail resurgent Bihari, blessed art thou.

Delhi’s Floriana Group, assigned the project, engaged its Italian associate Samford, particularly in sculpting the “abstract Bihari”. Along with the abstract symbol, the government will use historical images to infuse in visitors a sense of pride in their state. It is modernity with history, road construction department secretary Pratyay Amrit sais.

“While we have Vaishali Ashokan gates, we also have modern gates. The Bihari sculpture is open to interpretation,” he said. He added, nevertheless, that the structure symbolises the “upward growth and hard work of the Bihari”.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the structure reminded him of Mauritius, where people from Bihar had put up an abstract structure to hail the spirit of their state.

Visitors interpreted the structure in various ways. A daily wager gazed at it and wondered, “Which God is this?”

The government has decided to put up a plaque explaining to people that the Indo-Italian modern sculpture has been put there as a salute to their hard work.