A blow to the caste system

Yadav and his wife had taken turns running Bihar from 1990 to 2005, and were always re-elected despite little economic progress. Amberish Diwanji of Rediff.com documented how they stayed in power: “Sir, we vote as per our caste, nothing else,” a high-caste man told the journalist in 2005. “Lalu Yadav is a rascal, he has done nothing, but as a Yadav, I have to vote for his party.” Not this time. Kumar has built schools, distributed bicycles, cut down on bribery, and built roads that attract investment. Travel times have been halved and economic growth is now the highest in India at over 11 per cent. Kumar’s victory is proof that jobs can trump tradition.