In poll-bound Bihar, a phrase that is often heard when reporters put microphones to common people in the hinterlands is that they don’t want a “pre-2005 scenario again". Most of these memories revolve around the law-and-order situation in that era. As strange as it may sound, Bihar must be the only state in India where the electoral narrative for the last two decades has been defined in “pre-2005" and “post-2005" terms—the dividing line being the return of governance and order after years of fear and chaos.

In the land of the Magadh empire, where the history of policing goes back almost 2,000 years, it is deeply ironic that the state witnessed a near-collapse of law enforcement between 1990 and 2005. The constant references to “law and order" in Bihar’s political discourse today reflect how severe the pre-2005 decay was and how far the state has travelled since then. As election fervour returns, much attention will inevitably fall on governance, caste equations, and welfare promises, but law and order continue to silently shape the voter’s mind.

The first laurels to Nitish Kumar’s 2005 NDA government came in the form of improved law and order. As chronicled in a series of articles, Bihar in the 1990s had become one of India’s most lawless states—a hub of kidnapping, land grabs, contract killings, and mafia dominance. When Nitish Kumar assumed power in 2005, he inherited a state where the protector had turned tormentor. His first order was simple but revolutionary: every FIR must lead to a chargesheet within 90 days. Within five years, over 54,000 criminal convictions followed—a landmark shift for a state long accustomed to impunity.

Nitish’s partnership with reform-minded officers like Abhayanand and Afzal Amanullah was pivotal. Abhayanand’s conviction-based policing, focusing even on small but easy-to-prove firearm possession cases, led to a surge in convictions under the Arms Act from just 29 in January 2006 to over 25,000 by 2008. These swift convictions restored public confidence and struck fear into habitual offenders. Dacoity, robbery, and kidnapping rates fell dramatically by 2008. Simultaneously, the state encouraged surrenders, created the State Auxiliary Police (SAP) by recruiting trained ex-servicemen, and set up fast-track courts for politically powerful criminals, including those from Nitish’s own party. That impartiality became Bihar’s turning point.

In the following years, Bihar’s law and order occasionally faltered, but successive administrations were careful not to let the state slip back into the pre-2005 abyss. That resolve found strong reinforcement from New Delhi after 2014, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah began pushing a new architecture for police modernisation and criminal law reform across India. Shah’s initiatives, often underappreciated in public debate, have had a decisive influence on Bihar’s policing landscape.

Through the Police Modernisation Scheme, Bihar Police received central funding for forensic labs, cybercrime units, and training infrastructure. The........

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