Acting on Shahabuddin is a risk worth taking for Nitish Kumar

Former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammed Shahabuddin, once known as the "terror of Siwan", is at the centre of a big controversy over the recent killing of a journalist in Bihar.

The opposition has dared chief minister Nitish Kumar to take action against the jailed bahubali (strongman) leader, who has been accused of being the mastermind behind the crime.

The murder of Rajdeo Ranjan, who worked with a vernacular daily in Siwan, has come as a major challenge for Nitish. The alleged "Shahabuddin angle" in the killing has put him in a spot, but he needs to convert his challenge into an opportunity by dealing with the issue with an iron hand.

Also read - Journalist Rajdeo Ranjan's murder is a death threat to Bihar media

Shahabuddin has been languishing behind bars in Siwan Jail for almost a decade now. He has already been sentenced to life-imprisonment in two separate murder cases. But he appears to have retained his clout, especially in his party, over the years.

After Shahabuddin was convicted in the murder cases, and subsequently barred from contesting any election, RJD president Lalu Prasad had sought to compensate him by fielding his wife Hena Shahab in the last two general elections from Siwan, the seat held by her husband four times in a row before his disqualification. Earlier this year, he was even made the member of the party's national executive committee.

In his hometown, Shahabuddin has held sway like no other local politician, with or without muscle power. Even after his incarceration, he has often been accused of holding "durbars" to meet local visitors inside the jail. The "courtesy visits" of the lawmakers of different hues have also been a regular affair all these years.

With the return of the RJD to power after the thumping victory of the Grand Alliance coalition in the Bihar Assembly polls last year, his clout was expected to increase.

But it also threw up a question as to whether Nitish would let him "rule" Siwan again to keep his alliance partner in good humour. Everybody, therefore, waited for his response when Shahabuddin's name cropped up in the journalist murder case earlier this month.

Since his government's fate hinged on the support of the RJD (which has more MLAs than JD(U) in the Bihar Assembly), he was not expected by many to take "strong" action vis-à-vis Shahabuddin.

Nitish, however, took no time to accept the demand of the slain scribe's family to recommend a CBI inquiry and even shifted Shahabuddin from Siwan to Bhagalpur Central Jail soon thereafter.

Some of his close associates were also quickly transferred to other jails by the state government to underline Nitish's oft-stated message that "nobody is above law in Bihar".

The CBI probe will, of course, insulate the Nitish government from the charges of favouritism in the murder case but his move is definitely fraught with grave political dangers.

It is not yet clear whether he had kept Lalu in the loop before recommending the CBI probe but it is beyond reasonable doubt that the decision has not gone down well with certain RJD leaders.

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Party MP Mohammed Taslimuddin has already demanded Nitish's ouster for the deteriorating law and order situation while another senior party leader Prabhunath Singh has held the administration responsible for the state of affairs at Siwan Jail.

But then, Nitish is known to take calculated risks. He apparently would like to dispel the impression that he works under the compulsion of coalition politics and allows his allies to get away with anything in lieu of their support.

Whatever be the outcome of his decision, the chief minister cannot afford to fritter away his well-cultivated image of a good administrator over the Shahabuddin issue despite facing a risk to his government at this juncture.

At a time when he is fast emerging as a potential challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, such risks are worth taking for his political future.

(Couretsy of Mail Today.)