DON SHAHABUDDIN CHALLENGES NITISH’S AUTHORITY
From Arun Srivastava
It may sound bizarre, but the fact remains that Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has to beg to Lalu Prasad to restrain his disciple don Shahabuddin from hurling diatribe and denunciation against Kumar. No one would have imagined that the proxy boys of Nitish have to approach Lalu for buying peace. The importance of being Shahabuddin is implicit from this simple incident. Though the RJD’s vice president, Raghubans Prasad Singh, next to Lalu in party hierarchy, has been quite critical of Nitish ever since he became chief minister, the JD(U) or Nitish never took cognizance of his utterances. But a one liner quip from Shahabuddin rocked the political establishment of the state and JD(U) has to reach the door steps of Lalu.
Just after stepping out of the Bhagalpur jail, Shahabuddin had created a tremor in political circles, calling Nitish Kumar “CM of circumstances” and lampooning him by saying that Nitish cannot get more than 20 seats on his own. The don said Nitish Kumar became chief minister because of circumstances. A regular chief minister comes from the masses, others become chief minister by virtue of being in a coalition…because of circumstances. “Our neta (leader) is obviously (RJD chief) Lalu Yadav, (and) Nitish Kumar is the chief minister of the state, (there’s) no debate on that,” says Shahabuddin.
Shahabuddin explicitly clarified that Nitish Kumar was not his leader. For him Lalu Prasad will continue to remain his leader. He says, “I’ve started my political career with him and will end it with him. Whatever decision he takes, wherever he goes, I’ll follow him. For me, he is the only mass leader in the country today, and a natural leader”.
What’s worse, in reply to Niish’s rebuttal that the people of Bihar had given him the mandate, he retorted “Madhu Koda ko bhi public ka mandate tha (Even Madhu Koda had public mandate)”. Madhu Koda the lone RJD legislator in Jharkhand became the chief minister and was in office for nearly two years. He was later jailed for his involvement in coal scam.
Shahabuddin disowning Nitish has not been an impulsive observation. He was speaking the mind of his leader, Lalu Yadav. Those who are aware of the style of functioning of Lalu know that no leader of any stature can open his mouth on any issue, forget criticism of Nitish, without the tacit approval of the RJD boss. Though lone exception has been Raghubans Prasad, he too has been cautious of not crossing the Laxman Rekha.
Shahabuddin’s avowal projects Lalu Yadav as the leader above the equals. In the political circle so far he was being acknowledged as the big brother of Nitish, who interfered into the running of the government. But Shahabuddin’s remarks are explicit that Nitish was following the dictates and fulfilling the wishes of Lalu. Nitish has no independent locus standi. Little doubt that it has eclipsed the aura and invincibility of Nitish. Personally rebutting Shahabuddin’s remark vindicates its magnitude and significance. There is a galaxy of party spokesperson but none dared to counter Shahabuddin.
While generally people of Bihar have not taken Shahabuddin’s jibes seriously, there are some who see the development from the perspective of the friendly shoot-out. They nurse the view that the release of Shahabuddin must not cause damage to image of Nitish which was why he was resorting to such tactics. True enough his release has put the government in the docks. Questions are being raised if dreaded don Anant Singh can be pushed inside the jail under crime control Act (CCA), why Shahabuddin was allowed to come out notwithstanding that he was convicted in some other cases and is still under trial in others.
These people apprehend that it was done at the behest of Lalu Prasad. They look at the episode as a part of Shahabuddin’s strategy to be harsh towards Nitish, to emphasize the differences between them. In fact the release of Shahabuddin is causing more problems to the Nitish Kumar government. It has added to the peoples’ perception that ‘jungle raj’ is returning. .What has further reinforced the peoples’ notion is the police action in not collecting toll charge at the Muzaffarpur toll booth from Shahabuddin’s convoy of more than 200 cars coming from Bhagalpur jail to Sivan. Later it transpired that the toll employees had police orders to let more than 200 cars in ex-MP Shahabuddin’s convoy pass without toll..The convoy included many red beacon cars. In fact people are asking how permission was granted to take out a procession of hundreds of cars with arms while Shahabuddin was visiting his hometown of Siwan from Bhagalpur jail.
An astute politician, trying to steer clear of the controversy after JD(U)’s request, Lalu has simply to say that he is not aware of the developments but that he would ask the leaders to restrain and behave in a decent manner. This is the usual refrain resorted to by the politics to silence public criticism. Lalu’s stance is not different.
To complicate things further for Nitish, a day after Shahabuddin said Nitish became Bihar’s chief minister only because he was in a coalition with the RJD, the former union minister Raghubans Singh said he had been opposed to Nitish becoming CM but since leaders decided it so he had to respect their decision
If for Chandrashekar Prasad, alias Chanda Babu, whose three sons were allegedly murdered by the goons of Shahabuddin, the release of the don from jail after eleven year stay in prison, “is nothing less than a death sentence”, for the Bihar chief minister it heralds the beginning of an uncertain future. Nitish cannot be sure of the survival of his government and the existence of the grand alliance. Maverick Lalu may play a trick any day.
Shahabuddin is out on bail in the murder of Rajiv Roushan, Chanda Babu’s eldest son. Roushan was an eyewitness to the murder of his two brothers. Chanda Babu says, “My sons Girish and Satish were kidnapped in 2004 by Shahabuddin’s men and killed by pouring acid at Pratappur. Rajiv, the elder son, was kidnapped but he escaped. When he returned to Siwan in 2014, he too was murdered”. Rajiv was killed in front of his father just 21 days after his marriage.
Significantly two most wanted “absconding “killers Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif, killers of journalist Rajdev Ranjan were spotted in the don’s convoy seen travelling with Shahabuddin when he was let out of Bhagalpur jail. It is beyond comprehension why the Siwan police failed to arrest them? In a major turn of events, now the senior police officials maintain that so far the police had no proof to establish Shahabuddin’s direct involvement in Rajdev Ranjan’s murder on May 13 this year. However earlier Laddan Mian, a contract killer close to the Siwan strongman, had hinted at the involvement of don. Laddan and five suspects – Sonu Gupta, Rohit Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Vijay and Vishnu – are lodged in Siwan district jail.
(IPA Service)