Lalu, Shahabuddin and the murky Bihar politics gift-wrapped in Nitish Kumar's 'sushasan'

Consider this: A convicted criminal-turned-politician, Mohammad Shahabuddin, out on bail after eleven years in jail has the temerity to take a jibe at the chief minister of the state that incarcerated him. He is no ordinary criminal though. He walked into the hallowed portals of Parliament by a combination of political patronage and and brute muscle power. 

His reputation preceded him, thanks to the reign of terror he had unleashed in his political constituency and karm-bhoomi, Siwan - the city in Bihar that gave the Indian republic its first President. 

Shahabuddin's release from Bhagalpur Jail hit headlines not just because of the terror tag he carries, but also because of his closeness to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former chief minister of Bihar, Lalu Prasad. 

Lalu, on his part, has been more than eager to flaunt his protege, despite Shahabuddin's notoriety as a criminal. One of the kodak moments of the duo that should win the best representative photo award of a symbiotic criminal-politician relationship shows Siwan's 'Saheb' feeding Lalu from his hands, literally and figuratively. 

Not that a convicted criminal is expected to openly sing paeans of his political master but the fact that he draws his credibility and standing from the worthy politician is never lost on him. His career graph soars and dips with the politician's ability to flit in and out of power.

In Indian political milieu a criminal worth his terror quotient and not being patronised by a worthy politician is unthinkable. The slow-paced electoral reforms ensure politicians have a field day scouting and cultivating such talents. Usually such talents are also tested in a caste cauldron; a politician seeks to leverage the criminal's caste antecedents for his own political sustenance. In Shahabuddin's case it was the Muslim vote-bank at the centre of Lalu's political jugglery.

So with Lalu's ascendance as Bihar's chief minister and later as the husband of the chief minister one man whose stature grew in proportion to the couple who ruled from 1, Anne Marg was Mohammed Shahabuddin. Lalu was the darling of the masses, and, Shahabuddin, the uncrowned king of Siwan whose acts of cruelty travelled beyond pachas-pachas kos dur. 

The nineties was an interesting era of Indian politics. The Sarkar in New Delhi was cobbled together by buying out opposition members of Parliament in the biggest bribery deal in Indian politics ever. When JMM bribery case did not make headlines Lalu Yadav's doses of earthy humour travelled all the way from Madhepura and Patna and parked themselves on the front pages of Delhi dailies. The newly emerging electronic media discovered audience lapped up the news on Lalu with considerable glee.

The issue of Mandal and Kamandal had already polarised Indian politics. Having stopped LK Advani's Rath at Samastipur in 1990, Lalu had been catapulted at the forefront of the anti-hindutva forces. He was now hailed as the new messiah of the minorities. 

Already an undisputed leader of the Gop (Yadavs), Lalu wanted to cement his standing among the masses. Muslims along with Yadavs were the new pawns on Lalu's political chessboard now. Muslim-Yadav (MY) equation proved to be a winning formula that would yield him huge dividends next decade and a half. The troika of Mohd Shahabuddin along with Mohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi and Taslimuddin were the new mascots of 'M' of Lalu's 'MY' political jugglery.

This Muslim-Yadav combo did stand him in good stead even when Lalu hit a rough patch following corruption charges in 'chara-ghotala' that threw him off his mount and threatened to render him politically irrelevant. His wife saved the day for him as Lalu continued to pull the strings from behind the curtains. One man's political survival did come at a great cost to clean polity though. 

A semblance of law and order was visible by its absence as Bihar plunged further into chaos. Opposition charged Lalu with perpetuating a jungle raj in Bihar. But as long as Lalu enjoyed the support of MY, it was difficult to translate the gravity of those charges into a wave of protest against him on the ground  Lalu's almost celestial halo would take its own time to come unstuck. 

At the peak of chaara ghotala, Lalu Yadav fielded his trusted lieutenant, strongman and MLA Mohd Shahabuddin for Lok Sabha. For the next decade or so, between 1996 to 2008, Mohd Shahabuddin would go on to win four consecutive Lok Sabha elections on RJD ticket from Siwan.

But nemesis did catch up with Lalu as his one-time friend-turned-political rival Nitish Kumar upstaged him in 2005 state elections. And yet again after ten months, with an even larger mandate. 

With Lalu's graph taking a nose-dive, Shahabuddin too ran out of luck. As Nitish took over the reins of Bihar, he ensured Lalu's right hand man was better off behind bars. 

But as they say, in politics there is nothing absolutely permanent. Neither friends, nor foes. Neither friend-turned-foes. Because they can shake hands to be bedfellows again. Lalu and Nitish are friends again ending almost two decades of bitter rivalry. 

Each of them has his own reason to stick together. Each of them has an attendant circumstance to justify their political position.

Shahabuddin summed it up well. Nitish sure is a CM of circumstance; a compromised image of his earlier no-nonsense self who blew the lights out of Lalu's lantern to stake his worthy claim as Bihar's ruler in 2005. Just as a combination of circumstances coupled with a stroke of good luck has put Lalu back into a bargaining position - a status where he can call the shots once again and bask in the glory of being the de-facto ruler of Bihar. 

But, will gains for Lalu translate into gains for Bihar? The answer is a huge NO. The release of Shahabuddin on bail has deepened that perception beyond reasonable doubt.

History shall judge Lalu as a victim of the circumstances of his own making. And when that chapter is being written, who else but criminal-turned-politician Mohd Shahabuddin would qualify to be the best man to write little more than a circumstantial epilogue on his political mentor. 

(The views expressed in the column are solely those of the author)