Mithila will prosper only if it becomes a state, says Kirti

He has been three-time MP from Darbhanga, winning for the third time during the Modi wave in 2014. Son of former Bihar CM Bhagwat Jha Azad, cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad tells Sonali Das that the backwardness of north Bihar and his parliamentary constituency is due to the arrogance of chief minister Nitish Kumar. A strong protagonist of separate Mithilanchal state, Kirti feels it is the only answer for saving the vanishing culture and tradition of north Bihar and removing its backwardness.Excerpts from the interview:
You have been a strong contender of a separate Mithilanchal state.
Yes, I am. Bihar government has failed to protect the culture and tradition of Mithilanchal. Our samskar, sanskriti and parampara (tradition and culture) are vanishing. Education here is in Hindi, even though Maithili is a very rich language, with its own script. A child here has the right to be taught in his mother tongue. Maithili, in fact, should have been the second language here. The region is also rich in monuments but floods persistently ravage the region. The areas inhabited by Maithili-speaking Madhesis in Nepal are on the border of Mithila, which were ceded on December 2, 1815, by the East India Company. These include Janakpur, where Ram-Janaki wedding is said to have taken place. Now, there is lack of education facilities and missionaries have quietly crept in for imparting education. Mithila’s culture is lost now, which is why people here are divided into castes.
But the experiment of small states has been disastrous like in Jharkhand.
Whenever there is a coalition government, problems will arise. In Jharkhand too, now the situation will improve with a majority government. Take the example of Chhattisgarh where development has taken place in leaps and bounds.
Apart from tradition and culture, what is your vision for Mithilanchal state?
This region is known for its ‘maach, paan and makhan (fish, betel and makhana)’ but these were never promoted. Inefficient officers were sent here, due to which the area never developed. This will change once we have a separate state.
You have been an MP thrice and Darbhanga Sadar has a three-times BJP MLA in Sanjay Sarawgi.
Present chief minister Nitish Kumar is not only arrogant but very vindictive too. When he joined hands with BJP in 1995, he had only three MLAs with him and no base or workers. He left Lalu Prasad and jumped on the BJP bandwagon for his own vested interests. The government has failed to give us infrastructural support resulting in the area’s backwardness. It has failed to provide land for setting up a planetarium to boost tourism and a power substation as mooted by me. Money which came from the Centre for the development of Darbhanga was never sent here.
What happens if the NDA does not come to power this time? Do you have any plan of action?
I’m not a politician by choice and my cricketing experience has endowed me with lots of positivity. The first two phases have been very encouraging, as have been the surveys that have been conducted. It’s thumbs up for the NDA all the way.