Bihar, one of the 28 States of the country, was once upon a time, the Jewel of Jambudwipa, the Indian Peninsula. This was the land where Buddhism and Jainism took birth. Pataliputra, present - day Patna, was the capital of the Mauryan Empire, considered to be the golden period of the country's history.

In later years, particularly pre - Independence days and immediately thereafter, political leaders of national stature and influence like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Babu Jagjivan Ram and Jayaprakash Narayan hailed from this State. After Independence, Bihar was on par with the rest of economically burgeoning States of the country, with the law and order situation equally at par. No bad news emanated from Bihar. And then… enter the Dragon! Lalu Prasad Yadav with the blessings of V. P. Singh and everything changed for the worse.

More surprisingly, he stayed along with his wife to rule the unfortunate State for as long as 15 years, creating not wealth but poverty, establishing not law and order, but chaos.

Lalu could do all this and get away too without as much as half the harassment poor Yeddyurappa is facing here in Karnataka. Lalu and his wife remained to loot the State's coffers because of the support the Congress Party gave him for political reasons.

The Bihar fodder scam shook the nation and for a while it seemed to destroy Lalu's political career for ever but with timely legal advice rendered by a Congress lawyer who was a Law Minister at the Centre, he “installed” his wife in the CM's chair and to a great extent saved himself and also the scam - ridden government. Under his rule, Bihar touched its nadir with the appellate of “Lawless Land”.

Projecting himself as a secularist, he practised this principle more in its breach than in its compliance. He created a Vote Bank with a deadly unbeatable combination of his major caste Yadavs and the minorities, especially Muslims, which brought him election success after success.

Fortunately for the people of Bihar, they saw a ray of hope like the gentle glow of the sun at the crack of dawn when Nitish Kumar, JD (U) leader in alliance with NDA partners, the BJP being the major party, went into the election battle in 2004 and surprisingly trounced the seemingly invincible Lalu Prasad Yadav to capture power. However, during the first year as Chief Minister, it was not easy for Nitish Kumar to clean up the Augean Stables left behind by Lalu and his henchmen. As Nitish Kumar himself said, he had to move forward very cautiously for fear of intimidation and sabotage by Lalu's men whenever he took steps to correct the wrongs of the earlier administration.

But then, despite Lalu's men in the opposition always creating obstacles, Nitish Kumar moved forward bringing about some changes. By and by the people of Bihar began to see the difference between Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar.

In the elections of 2008, Nitish Kumar was naturally swept into power while Lalu Prasad was, in a manner of speaking, swept under the State's Red Carpet. This time round Lalu was so badly crippled politically that he was unable to torment or obstruct Nitish Kumar in his march towards reforms and development.

No wonder Forbes India, a prestigious international magazine, has come out with an exclusive story about the cleaning up of Bihar. In the article titled "Bribeless in Bihar," Nitish Kumar's strategy to make Bihar a corruption - free State is discussed. The bureaucrats in this most corrupt State are facing the heat from their own Chief Minister and are mending their ways. How could he do this?

When Nitish Kumar came to power for the first time, his administration locked up 54,000 people in a bid to break the criminal - politician nexus that had plunged Bihar into the quagmire of anarchy. In fact, there was a criminal – politician - bureaucrat nexus having a vice - like grip over the administration and for whom the hapless general public was the proverbial Golden Goose, according to the article. Nitish Kumar wanted to break this satanic nexus and therefore set up a Special Vigilance Unit (SVU) in 2006 to go after the big fish. And, who were put in charge of this special unit? Former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials with proven integrity and competence.

The SVU soon began to hit headlines as it caught several senior government officials such as the former Director General of Police (DGP) Narayan Mishra and the State Drug Controller V. K. Jaiswal. Their loot was so huge, so the article says that the money could finance the annual budget of entire villages. However, the disappointing part of it all was when the SVU trapped about 400 government officials of whom only two of them were convicted. The article says that the corrupt babus had paan - wallahs, ice - cream vendors and traders to act as “collectors” of bribes for them.

This ill - gotten money hardly left the country but was invested in real estate or in gold. The investigators on many occasions found cash stashed away within mattresses in the bedrooms. This often came to the rescue of the accused for when the corrupt babus were caught they could use the same money to bribe investigators on the spot. And the game could go on!

It was under these circumstances that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar put his Attorney - General D. K. Sahi on the job of drafting a Bill that could overcome the loopholes found in the Prevention of Corruption Act and also strengthen the hands of the SVU. Sahi prepared a draft Bill in 2008 known as Bihar Special Courts Bill that was passed by the Bihar Assembly in February 2009. As could be expected, when it was sent to the Union Home and Law Ministry for approval, it languished there for more than a year, thanks to some of the Bihar politicians. They had their vested interest in making sure that the Bill was not approved or delayed as long as possible.

Eventually, this most powerful law, draconian for some, known as Bihar Special Courts Act - 2009, was signed into Law by the President of India in March 2010. Under this Act, whenever a person is booked for corruption and for possessing assets disproportionate to his income, his property is summarily confiscated by the government. The government then uses the property as a hospital, school or for any other public purpose.

When authorities acting under this law began to confiscate property whenever a case was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, all bureaucrats finally opened their eyes to see the writing on the wall. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the past, if convicted, the officer could only be jailed or fined. But under the new Bihar Special Courts Act, the officer, apart from being jailed or fined, would also lose his property to the State. If, however, the officer is acquitted, he gets back his property plus 5% interest.

Of course, the new law has been challenged in Court as being unconstitutional.

However, for now it is a nightmare for the bureaucrats of Bihar who are corrupt. The article quotes newspaper reports that over Rs.100 crore had been withdrawn from banks in the capital Patna alone in the fortnight following the first confiscation of a corrupt Motor Vehicle Inspector's house where now the government has planned to start a school.

Bihar was listed as the No.1 Corrupt State among all States in the country between 2000 - 2005 during Lalu Prasad's regime. It is hoped that with the cleansing process underway under the new law, corruption in Bihar might come down to a little more humane level. After all, vices like prostitution and corruption cannot be totally eradicated.