Six-Shooters On The Loose In Patna

There is no let-up in Nitish Kumar’s problems in his new term as chief minister. A steady rise in the crime graph ever since he won a hard-fought election in November has been giving sleepless nights to the state administration. Nitish has asked the top police brass to pull up their socks, but to no avail.

It is an unhappy period for the JD(U) stalwart, whose record in curbing crime in a once-lawless state has been his USP in his three previous terms. During the 15-year combined tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, between 1990 and 2005, law and order had plummeted to such an extent that it had once prompted the Patna High Court to compare the lawlessness to ‘jungle raj’,

The remarks on rampant lawlessness turned out to be the biggest weapon for the Opposition, enabling them to trounce the Rashtriya Janata Dal in successive polls. As NDA leader, Nitish took up the issue vigorously to wrest power from the RJD in 2005. As CM, he managed to restore the rule of law. But now, his copybook is being stained irrevocably.

On January 12, Rupesh Kumar Singh, 42, station manager of IndiGo Airlines, was gunned down in front of his house in Patna. The incident, in one of the busiest localities, sent shockwaves across Bihar. Singh was about to reach his apartment from the airport around 7 pm, when armed criminals lying in wait fired at him from close range. He was killed instantly.

Rupesh, who worked at Patna airport for the past 13 years, knew several politicians and bureaucrats. However, nob­ody had any inkling about a threat to his life. The state police, with a ‘blind case’ on its hands, set up a special inv­estigation team to crack the crime.

A few days later, when the police failed to make any breakthrough, med­iapersons confronted Nitish about it at the inauguration of the much-awaited Atal Path in central Patna. The four-lane highway, expected to ease Patna’s traffic woes, and named after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been one of Nitish’s ambitious development projects. It was completed in less than two years.

On such an occasion, Nitish apparently did not expect to be grilled over deteriorating law and order. He urged the media not to compare the development work being done with cases of crime. “Do not forget the action being taken against crime. This incident is being investigated properly, ” he said. “I have spoken to the DGP. The police have set up special teams to investigate the case. The culprits will be punished quickly through speedy trial.”

Nonetheless, peeved at the frequent criticism of his government, Nitish claimed that Bihar was currently ranked 23rd in incidence of crime as per the national crime statistics. Predictably, he also reminded the media of the Lalu-Rabri regime. “What was the situation before 2005? How much violence was there? How many incidents of crime took place back then?” he asked. “The number of crimes under the 15-year-long regime of the husband and wife [Lalu-Rabri] is not hidden from anyone.”

The Rupesh murder case, incidentally, is not the only major cae that has buffeted Nitish’s current tenure. In the past two months, many high-profile crimes have posed a challenge to Bihar Police. But the killing of a private airlines official provided the Opposition enough ammunition to intensify its attack on the beleaguered chief minister.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav says that Nitish has bec­ome insensitive to such incidents. “I do not know how an insensitive chief minister manages to sleep despite hundreds of murders taking place every day on his watch?” he asks. “The chief minister is simply not able to govern Bihar…. He is completely exh­austed. Apart from ability and willpower, his sensitivity has also gone. ”

Tejashwi has also issued an appeal “in the public interest”. “Please step out of your house carefully. The law and order under an incapable and imm­oral government of Bihar has tot­ally collapsed,” he cautioned on Twitter. He has also written a letter to the CM, urging him to strengthen law and order to dispel people’s fear. “Otherwise, they will never forgive you and you will not find a place in the footnote of history,” he wrote. “The common man is saying that there was a golden era preceding your misrule of 15 years. The home department under you is the epicentre of crime generation.” He called the ‘double engine’—JD(U) and BJP—a ‘trouble engine’.

The JD(U) has duly hit back at Tejashwi, saying the RJD leader has forgotten that kidnapping had acq­uired the status of an industry during the Lalu-Rabri regime. “Engineer, doctor, businessman, everybody was picked up in broad daylight,” says Sanjay Singh, the state JD(U) spokesperson. “Many hostages were killed  those days despite paying ransom money.” He further castigated him: “Your shamelessness is revealed in your letter to the chief minister. It was the Patna High Court, not us, that termed the regime of your parents as jungle raj. Your clan had people like Mohammad Shahabuddin, Raj Ballabh Yadav and Arun Yadav, whose actions are well known.”

The state police chief denies any great increase in crime in Bihar. According to DGP S.K. Singhal, the media has chosen to mention the rising criminal activity without providing relevant data to buttress their claims. He says that though there was a rise in crime in Bihar in 2019, it doesn’t exist now, though the media does not highlight it. “In fact, the record of our state is the best in the country as far as action taken on every criminal incident is concerned,” he says.

Tejashwi alleges that the DGP is merely parroting Nitish’s words over the bygone years. “In the past 16 years, many DGPs have come and gone. According to Bihar Police’s own statistics, there has been an increase in crime since 2008, but the chief minister remains the same,” he points out.

Despite facing criticism, Nitish holds the home portfolio in his new term, as he has done in the past. His previous three tenures saw a significant drop in the crime rate in Bihar, which earned him credit. But the recent spurt, especially the sensational Rupesh murder case, has left an irritable Nitish dodging the Opposition’s well-directed salvos.

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajeet Sharma claims that the actual reason behind Nitish’s growing frustration and anger is ally BJP’s persistent demand for the home portfolio. “Nitish should not come under the pressure of the BJP; if his problems inc­rease, he should join the Grand Alliance and develop Bihar with us,” he says.

The RJD has described Sharma’s rem­arks as his ‘personal opinion’, but recurring questions over handling of the law and order situation in Bihar appears to be a grim reminder that the more things change, the more they rem­ain the same in Bihar politics.