India, Nov. 11 -- For more than two decades, Nitish Kumar has been chief minister (CM) of Bihar. For about a dozen years, his deputy and finance minister was the late Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP. Did these two stalwarts do justice to Bihar? Their financial management record reveals that Bihar has ended up as one of India's most fiscally fragile states under them.

The CAG reported recently that Bihar has no utilisation certificates for over Rs.70,000 crore of expenditure! This is extraordinary mismanagement of public resources. Other states leveraged their resources and central aid to build a stable base for growth. Bihar's trajectory has been one of weak revenue mobilisation, over-reliance on the Centre, and underinvestment in productiv...