How Nitish Kumar plays the caste card when it suits him

On July 11, 2015, sitting JD(U) legislator, Narendra Kumar, alias Sunil Pandey, was arrested in connection with the Ara bomb blast case on the basis of a statement by Sachidanand Sharma, alias Lambu Sharma, who is already under arrest. In his confessional statement, Lambu Sharma said the JD(U) MLA facilitated his escape from police custody and provided him shelter in Delhi. Sharma also admitted that Pandey gave him a Rs 50-lakh contract to kill Uttar Pradesh gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari. 

On June 24, 2015, Patna police had arrested JD(U) MLA Anant Singh following the kidnapping and murder incident that took place at Barh on June 17. A week earlier, police had arrested two of his close aides - Bhushan and Ghanshyam - in connection with the murder of one Putus Yadav. They apparently claimed they were working at the behest of Anant Singh.  

These arrests of the two ruling party MLAs, within a span of under three weeks, suggest the Nitish Kumar's government follows a zero tolerance policy on crime. It also bolsters the view that if required Nitish does not hesitate in putting his own party MLAs behind bars. But is that truly the case? 

Sunil Pandey is not an ordinary MLA. In March 2000, when Nitish Kumar was installed as the CM of Bihar, by the Atal Bihar Vajpaiee government, Sunil was one of the key men who brought in the necessary brawn to counter Lalu Yadav's muscleman Mohammad Shahabuddin. Sunil Pandey was then an MLA from Piro, much like Suraj Bhan, an independent MLA from Mokama. In fact, there were other independent MLAs he worked hard to draw into Nitish's fold. At that time, Nitish had no qualms in taking advantage of Sunil Pandey's criminal antecedents to consolidate his own position.

In June 2006, Sunil Kumar Pandey, had stayed for a night at the upmarket Maurya hotel in Patna. Checking out the next morning he refused to pay the bill claiming that the owners of Maurya owed a friend of his a sum of Rs 47 lakh. When journalists who were there at the hotel to cover a programme involving chief minister Nitish Kumar, asked him why he didn't want to pay the bill, Pandey, who was reportedly inebriated, threatened to kill a TV newschannel cameraman. The entire episode was recorded and telecast forcing Nitish Kumar to briefly suspend him from the party. But in the 2010 assembly elections, Nitish had no hesitation in giving him a ticket once again. 

Sunil, and his younger brother Hulas Pandey, a former MLC, who lost the just concluded legislative council elections on a Lok Janshakti Party ticket, are known terror incarnates in the entire Shahabad region comprising Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur. Sunil Pandey faces more than two dozen serious criminal charges including murder, kidnapping and extortion. 

Under Nitish Kumar's tenure, the Pandey brothers got protection from law enforcement agencies. They began spreading their area of influence from Shahabad region to other parts of not just Bihar but eastern Uttar Pradesh as well. Everyone feared lodging complaints against them; in pending cases, witnesses turned hostile. The Pandey brothers started getting clean chits from in courts as cases were either softened or simply dropped against them. All the while that they were getting acquitted in criminal cases, they continued to mint money mostly through illegal enterprises. 

Anant Singh, the other MLA who was arrested, is known as "Chhote Sarkar" or more truthfully as the terror of Mokama. His misdeeds grabbed national attention when in 2007 he held TV journalists captive for two hours and brutally beat them up at his official bungalow. Prakash Singh and Habib Ali of NDTV 24X7 and Ajay Kumar of ANI had gone to the MLA's residence to get his version on the recovery of a sack containing a woman's body, reportedly identified as Reshma Khatoon, from the state capital. The MLA's involvement was suspected in the case. A news carried by a local daily also claimed that the woman was allegedly molested by the MLA. 

When Anant became an MLA he shifted his attention from Mokama and allegedly began eyeing property in Patna. Very soon his name plate appeared on the huge iron gate of a prime property in the city. The legitimate owner tried everything to get his property back, he even went to meet chief minister Nitish Kumar at a janata durbar but nothing happened. Within a short span of time, Anant Singh became biggest property grabber in Patna. At least 35 criminal cases had been registered against him, but Anant was acquitted in most of them, with strange tales of impunity connected to each and every acquittal.

It was obvious that Nitish Kumar's proximity paid dividends. Despite his constant misdeeds, CM Nitish preferred to not see law enforced. In 2010 assembly elections, he was again given a party ticket by the JD(U) supremo. 

So, until very recently, Nitish Kumar mostly ignored the criminal activities of both these MLAs. However, now with Assembly elections barely months away, he has suddenly had both arrested. Do the arrests indicate their crimes are now somehow more serious than they were in the past? Or have they outlived their utility for the Bihar chief minister? Are they turning out to be a liability in the changing political equation? 

Both these MLAs are from the Bhumihar caste. It was the Bhumihars who aggressively, and on several occasions, even militantly opposed Lalu, both when he or his wife had occupied the chief minister's chair. And going by the trend of caste wars of the last few decades, it is very difficult for Yadavs and Bhumihars to coexist.

Nitish is now banking on making inroads into Lalu's vote bank. He knows very well that when he has to choose between 14.7 per cent Yadavs against that of 4.7 per cent Bhumihars vote banks, then Yadavs would win hands down. Nitish is also aware that this time around the Bhumihars aren't going to vote for him. In fact, these arrests send across the message to the Yadavs that the state government is getting tough on Bhumihar musclemen.

Strange are the requirements of politics because it now seems that the good criminals of yesteryears, like Sunil Pandey and Anant Singh, have suddenly turned bad criminals for Nitish Kumar.