Bihar politics plunged into turmoil on Saturday following a news channel exposing taped conversation between gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahbuddin and various people, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad.
Since RJD and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) are in power in Bihar at the moment, with JD-U leader Nitish Kumar as chief minister, demands are being raised for him to resign because he does not appear to have control over the law-and-order situation in the state.
The conversations aired by the news channel claim to show that Shahbuddin — who has been in jail following his conviction in a double murder case — is actually the one calling the shots in the streets and behind the curtains, while bigger politicians keep up appearances.
Shahabuddin had spent 11 years behind bars when he was finally granted bail for a short period late last year. His bail was cancelled in a matter of weeks after the Bihar government appealed against it in Supreme Court, and he was forced to surrender and go back to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence.
It now seems, in light of the new expose, that Shahbuddin may not only be in control of what happens outside prison, but also what decisions his political mentor Lalu Prasad takes! He may even be controlling Lalu and his actions in some instances. That he has been comfy in jail had been made amply clear when he posted selfies of himself from within jail in January.
Arnab Goswami's new channel Republic TV, which began broadcasting on Saturday, aired four tapes to substantiate these allegations. In one of the tapes, Shahabuddin is heard telling the liquor mafia that he would help them with their stock of alcohol, at a time when the Bihar government, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was putting a liquor ban in place.
In another tape, he is heard threatening Lalu Prasad that the Siwan superintendent of police (SP) was in dire straits because he had thwarted Shahabuddin's aides' efforts to create communal tensions in Siwan on Ram Navami in 2016.
It may be noted that while Lalu and JD-U leader Nitish are otherwise political foes, they have been running a joint government after teaming up and defeating the BJP and neutralising the effect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2016 Bihar Assembly elections.
Their alliance is why, after the expose, political rivals have called for Nitish to step down as Bihar chief minister. Leading the charge is BJP leader Sushil Modi, who was deputy chief minister under Nitish himself in the previous Bihar government, when the JD-U and the BJP were in an alliance.
