ONE night in late 1990s.
The district police had suddenly become pregnant with the idea of their manhood. The 'Kaptaan' of the police personnel had shared with them the mission idea, that they would be out in the night to crush the head of the most vicious snake in the district.
With the city going to sleep in late evening, heavy shadows fell on the walls of the lanes and by-lanes leading to the den of the most vicious snake. Heavy boots thumped the ground beneath. A few windows opened. Torch flashes fell on the approaching swarm of menacing police men. With rifles slung on their shoulders and fingers on machine guns, they gave a full measure of their might to the third ring of security of the vicious snake. Shots were fired. A few henchmen killed. Scores were hand-cuffed and bundled into waiting jeeps. The second ring too was crushed in quick time.
The den was panic stricken. The policemen were finally moments away from crushing the head of the most vicious snake. He too had given up. His hopes were lost.
Piercing the thick night with sharp red flashes, an ambassador car menacingly raced into the compound of the den. A man in his 50s alighted. His waistline was bloated, and hairline for all to count. The 'Kaptaan' and the policemen, who had been the hunting wolves of the night, became stiff at the sight of the man just out of the white ambassador. Their faces loosened. The man took the most vicious snake into his ambassador car and sped away.
Siwan knows that Mohammad Shahabuddin is an out and out criminal. He won elections by intimidating voters and rivals alike. He won Lok Sabha elections four times from 1996 to 2004. The law finally caught up with him in 2007 when he was convicted in one of many cases pending against him and sent to life imprisonment. He, thus, was debarred from contesting polls.
The law caught up with Mohammad Shahabuddin at a time when Bihar woke up to the idea that it had been electing criminals for quite long time. Nitish Kumar propped up by the BJP promised to keep criminals behind the bars. He kept his words, and very soon the dreaded criminals were in jails.
Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who held on to his den in the Seemanchal of Bihar, spent long years in Tihar jail. He who once literally got one of his henchmen to push a bamboo into the rectum of an engineer became a 'Drohkal ka pathik' during his stay in Tihar. Mohammad Shahabuddin could not carve out an independent fiefdom for himself, but Pappu Yadav was able to branch out in later years.
Lalu Prasad in his heydays was arguably nothing but a replication of Vito Coreone -- the Don of Mario Puzo's trendsetter novel 'The Godfather'. Lalu's empire crumbled with the ascendance of Nitish. The mandate compelled Nitish to crack whip against the criminals and Lalu's henchmen turned politicians.
But Nitish as is true with most of the politicos never pursued any idea to its logical end. He went after the criminals turned politicos, but left them half dead. He went after the crime syndicates, but allowed them to survive. He paid scant attention to policing and improving the infrastructure of law and order apparatus. That he solicited Mohammad Taslimuddin and sought blessings of the mother of the jailed Anand Mohan Singh in the run up to the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, besides allowing refuge in his party for the criminals from the ranks of Lalu's RJD made it evident that Nitish too sought to borrow the brand of politics of his former aka.
Six years later, Nitish and Lalu are a team. Nitish allowed Lalu to breath again in Bihar politics. He
stayed in power by joining hands with Lalu for 2015 Bihar polls. But in the process, he lost control of the genie that he allowed to come out of the shut bottle. Mohammad Shahabuddin had been running his empire from Siwan jail before being shunted out to Bhagalpur jail. Now, he's a free bird.
With Lalu getting his men back to their respective territory, it may only be a matter of days that Nitish will read the writing on the wall. That his script has awfully gone wrong is no more an idea lost to doubts. He knows better than any that Lalu can't be reigned in for long.
Nitish met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The obvious agenda was the issue of floods in Bihar. But some claim, they did not just talk floods.
Lalu Prasad in his heydays was arguably nothing but a replication of Vito Coreone -- the Don of Mario Puzo's trendsetter novel 'The Godfather'. Lalu's empire crumbled with the ascendance of Nitish. The mandate compelled Nitish to crack whip against the criminals and Lalu's henchmen turned politicians.
But Nitish as is true with most of the politicos never pursued any idea to its logical end. He went after the criminals turned politicos, but left them half dead. He went after the crime syndicates, but allowed them to survive. He paid scant attention to policing and improving the infrastructure of law and order apparatus. That he solicited Mohammad Taslimuddin and sought blessings of the mother of the jailed Anand Mohan Singh in the run up to the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, besides allowing refuge in his party for the criminals from the ranks of Lalu's RJD made it evident that Nitish too sought to borrow the brand of politics of his former aka.
Six years later, Nitish and Lalu are a team. Nitish allowed Lalu to breath again in Bihar politics. He
With Lalu getting his men back to their respective territory, it may only be a matter of days that Nitish will read the writing on the wall. That his script has awfully gone wrong is no more an idea lost to doubts. He knows better than any that Lalu can't be reigned in for long.
Nitish met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The obvious agenda was the issue of floods in Bihar. But some claim, they did not just talk floods.
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