Mahagathbandhan Today: Nitish Needs Lalu To Stay In Power, And Lalu Needs Shahabuddin 

In 2004, a story in Outlook magazine by Saba Naqvi painted a chilling portrait of the then freshly incarcerated don, Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is in the news again after having been released from prison on bail. However, just like in a Prakash Jha potboiler from the noughties, jail for the self-styled ‘Saheb’ of Siwan, at that point in time, was a VIP ward in the local hospital that also served as a Durbar Hall, where he sat and dispensed justice to his minions.

Those who paid obeisance to him included local politicians, minor to senior bureaucrats, cops, businessmen and common people who needed the don’s help to overcome the difficulties that they encountered in their day-to-day professional and personal lives. There were times when the otherwise-dreaded criminal exhibited great aptitude as a marriage counsellor as well.

Naqvi, who served as the political editor of Outlook magazine for many years, writes about how the notorious criminal was also something of a man of letters. He had earned MA and PhD degrees from the Muzaffarnagar University and was a fairly voracious reader, who even enlightened her as to the etymology of the word ‘don’. However, when he came to know of the fact that the innocuous-looking journalist had also been trying to dig into what she perceived to be the ‘other side of the story’, by trying to interview his rival, Om Prakash Yadav of the Janata Dal (United), his affable manner disappears. Yadav had twice contested the election unsuccessfully against Shahabuddin (at the time of writing, Yadav is a two-time sitting member of Parliament.) Shahabuddin issued a barely-veiled threat about how he had an entire cache of AK-47s at his disposal and how he did not countenance any potential threat to his authority in his fiefdom. Naqvi tweeted recently about how the encounter with Mohammad Shahabuddin made her ‘hair stand up’.

The likes of Mohammad Shahabuddin - released on bail last Saturday (10 Sept.), arguably with the connivance of the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government - are a shameful reminder that even after almost seventy years of independence, there are still large swathes of our country where we have been unable to incentivise adherence to the rule of law. The simple reason why Shahabuddin and others of his ilk thrive is because, for the vast majority of the populace, the costs of defying the law are much lower than defying the local ‘don’. To understand Mohammad Shahabuddin and his ilk, it is important to understand the socio-political context that created him.

The radical Left, as a rule, always finds fertile ground for its ideology in regions where feudal oppression is rampant. Contrary to what Marxist theory claims, it hardly ever takes root in advanced industrialised societies.

Bihar, at the time of independence, and even now almost seventy years hence, remains a largely rural backwater. Almost ninety percent of the population still lives in the villages. (The corresponding figure for Gujarat is about fifty-five percent). We would do well to remember that although the Permanent Settlement of Lord Cornwallis extended to both Bihar and what we now know as West Bengal, the caste of hereditary absentee landlords created by the East India Company was never uprooted or seriously disturbed by any political dispensation in Bihar till about the 1980s.

The Congress-led governments largely helmed by Bhumihars, Kayasthas and Maithil Brahmins made absolutely no effort to emancipate the peasantry from the oppression of the Zamindar class, which at times did border on the inhuman. Experience from the past century tells us that the conditions were indeed ripe for the intoxication of the masses with the opium of ‘revolution’.

True to form and past history, the various radical groupings, most notably the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) led by the redoubtable Vinod Mishra, soon morphed into a menace for the society at large. The ‘State’ by then had already ‘withered’ away and the local population, notably the medium and large-scale farmers, and even the poorest peasants who were uninterested in the armed revolution, found themselves to be at the mercy of the thuggish ‘revolutionaries’.

When the ‘socialists’ led by Lalu Prasad Yadav did come to power in Bihar in 1990, they realised that they did not need the radical social justice warriors of the CPI-ML who had helped them come to power in the first place. (Readers of this piece who have roots in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh would remember how NT Rama Rao first called the Naxals his ‘brothers’ and then after becoming Chief Minister announced on AIR Hyderabad that it was his sacred duty to annihilate them just as it was the sacred duty of the Pandavas to annihilate their brother Kauravas for having strayed from the path of righteousness.)

The wily Yadav needed the likes of Shahabuddin, who came from a family of fairly prosperous landlords, to act as his social police and to counter the growing muscle of the CPI-ML, which sooner or later would have challenged Lalu himself. The Siwan muscleman proved himself to be a more than competent bannerman. The battle between the CPI-ML and Shahabuddin was always going to be unequal for the simple reason that the latter had the formidable resources of the state at his command. It culminated in the brazen and spectacular murder of Chandrasekhar Prasad alias Chandu, a young president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students Union, in broad daylight allegedly at the behest of the henchmen of Lalu’s chosen don in 1997.

Subsequent to Chandu’s daylight murder, Shahabuddin’s fearsome reputation grew by leaps and bounds. In 2001, he had the audacity to engage Bihar police personnel in a pitched battle close to his residence. Later, in the run-up to the 2004 general elections and in all probability, armed with a guarantee from the de-facto Chief Minister of Bihar-Lalu Prasad Yadav, he surrendered before the police and was promptly arrested.

However, despite the arrest, he continued to hold court in the VIP ward of the Siwan hospital. He even contested the general elections from prison and won handsomely amidst allegations of electoral fraud and booth capturing. It would have been business as usual for him but for the fact that Lalu himself lost power in late 2005 and a Nitish Kumar-led government supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Bihar.

Shahabuddin was eventually arrested from his official residence in Delhi in November 2005 and was also refused bail by the Supreme Court. In May 2006, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar also set up special courts to try the various cases against him and other dons. The Don of Siwan suffered a series of legal setbacks culminating in a number of convictions that disqualified him from contesting the 2009 general election. His old nemesis Om Prakash Yadav, contesting as an independent candidate, finally managed to defeat his wife who was nominated by the Rashtriya Janata Dal to contest the election in his stead. Nitish and the BJP won the next Vidhan Sabha polls by an even bigger margin in 2010 and it seemed like Shahabuddin’s fate would be sealed forever.

The calculation behind Nitish’s U-turn on Lalu and his subsequent Mahagathbandhan with his erstwhile nemesis has also been examined and analysed in detail by the media in general, as well as this magazine in particular, and we need not go into it for the purpose of this piece. As of today, Yadav is also the sitting member of Parliament of Siwan. He contested and won the 2014 polls on a BJP ticket.

In December 2015, a month after the swearing in of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, Shahabuddin was convicted of the brutal murder of Satish and Girish Raj, two brothers and sons of a prominent Siwan businessman, who had been drenched with acid before being murdered. Three of Shahabuddin’s accomplices were also convicted of the crime.

At that point, it seemed like Shahabuddin’s sun had set forever. The Mahagathbandhan had defied the Modi wave and come back to power and even Lalu made some noises in the media to indicate that he would ensure that the mistakes he had made during his first three terms would not be repeated again. Nitish Kumar, the newly crowned Chief Minister, was anointed as the poster boy of ‘sushasan’ and potential challenger to Modi in 2019. What possible understanding could he have with convicted criminals like Shahabuddin, the likes of whom had terrorised Bihar throughout the 1990s and had contributed in no small measure to the image of Bihar as an area of perpetual darkness?

Game of Thrones is hit TV show, followed worldwide. Its TRPs have literally gone through the roof between its third and fourth seasons and as of today, it is the most widely watched TV show throughout the world. Those who are familiar with the plot would remember how an embattled Cersei Lannister, who is for all practical purposes the real power behind the throne of her young son Tommen, unleashes a freshly rearmed Faith Militant upon the benighted denizens of King’s Landing-the capital of the fictitious realm of Westeros. King Tommen-who is otherwise a boy wise beyond his years-is unable to resist this move for the simple reason that at that point in time, he is glad to have any support for his rather shaky regime. Those who have followed the eponymous TV series avidly would remember how this does not end well for Cersei, Tommen or the Faith Militants themselves-a brotherhood of thuggish martial monks who had earlier been outlawed by far more enlightened and stronger kings. King Tommen himself ends up committing suicide while Cersei is paraded naked through the streets of King’s Landing for her transgressions before she blows up half the city as well as the Faith Militant with a little help from her trusted henchman Qyburn (Prashant Kishore anyone? )

Nitish Kumar today faces a crisis of legitimacy for his rule primarily because of the shenanigans of Lalu’s former thuggish henchmen. We hear almost weekly reports of one incident or the other where these thugs unleash the 1990s upon the helpless denizens of Bihar. Businessmen are abducted in broad daylight while students are shot dead for daring to overtake vehicles driven by sons of lawmakers.

To be sure, Nitish’s own image is not so badly tarnished. However, his standing in the public’s estimation keeps going down because of his association with the likes of Lalu Prasad, who is the power behind the throne for the simple reason that he commands the greater share of legislators. The Chief Minister’s much-vaunted prohibition policy has also come a cropper and despite the fact that policemen have been instructed to ensure that people keep their mouths shut, the news coming out of Bihar that it’s a throwback to the worst days of Lalu’s reign. It is in these circumstances that the Nitish government’s inability to complete Shahabuddin’s trial in one of the myriad cases pending against him within the period stipulated by the court proved costly. The court was left with no option but to grant him bail.

The Chief Minister knows he needs Lalu’s captive vote bank more than ever and Lalu needs his henchmen. As Yogendra Yadav predicted in the run-up to the 2015 Vidhan Sabha polls, Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister has now become a tragic figure. True to form and past reputation, the first thing that Shahabuddin did, after being released, was to tell the media that the Chief Minister owed his position to fortuitous circumstances rather than the support of the people. He also repeated the barb a few days later. One cannot but feel sad for Nitish Kumar. Just a year ago, he was a darling of the media as well as the ‘intellegensia’, but today criminals and Lalu’s henchmen insult him and he can do nothing but issue face-saving rebuttals.

In all fairness, it is unlikely that Shahabuddin will not pay for his sins. He may have managed a temporary reprieve now, but the bail order shall surely be challenged in a higher court. Nitish and Lalu will also have a tough election in 2020 or even earlier if they cannot pull together. While Shahabuddin may get his just desserts in courts, the netas themselves shall shed no tears over him and shall find new people to do their dirty work. The only sufferers are the people of Bihar.