For a safer feeling

The minister for railways, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has strayed a bit too far from home to keep track of things in his backyard. The Bihar chief minister, Rabri Devi, used to picking her saheb’s brains for crisis management, is finding it difficult to rein in her warring flock. As Laloo Prasad gives his secular credo a boost by threatening to launch a high-level probe into the Godhra rail carnage in parliament, a communal bomb ticks near 1, Anne Marg in Patna. Cracks are showing in the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Muslim-Yadav mosaic in Siwan, next to his home-turf, Gopalganj.

Dubbed the backbone of Laloo Prasad’s social justice movement and the key to his government’s resilience for more than a decade, this exemplary coexistence is under threat in this minority-dominated district ruled by the don-turned-politician, Mohammed Shahabuddin, one of Laloo Prasad’s minority trump cards.

The recent killing of 10 Muslim fakirs (beggars) in Siwan has raised several uncomfortable questions — prickly enough to send the railway minister scurrying to the district with relief. Going by reports, the gangs owing allegiance to a local Yadav heavyweight raided Jagdishpur village and killed 10 homeless itinerants in sleep.

This is not the first time the Yadavs and the minorities have clashed in Shahabuddin’s stronghold. Since 1990, sporadic massacres have been reported in this district — the result of a continuing battle of supremacy between the Muslims and Yadavs. In 2000, 12 Yadav villagers were allegedly killed by goons from the minority community in retaliation to the butchering of five members of a Muslim family.

Last week’s massacre, according to the police, could be the fallout of an attack in neighbouring Gopalganj district which killed five Yadavs. The conflict, at the moment, seems confined to Siwan and Gopalganj. But Laloo Prasad does not want to take any chances before the 2005 assembly polls, for his brand of secular politics rests on the Muslim-Yadav bonhomie.

The contradictions in the Muslim and the Yadav leadership could well spill over to other districts if allowed to fester in Siwan. The Yadavs have never been known to see eye-to-eye with the minority community despite being on the same side of the class balance — both socially and economically — in Bihar.

The political dynamics of the two districts puts the conflict in perspective. Gopalganj is a Yadav stronghold. The writ of Laloo Prasad’s brother-in-law, Aniruddh Yadav alias Sadhu Yadav, runs large in this seemingly prosperous district. The land and the gangs are controlled by legislators, mostly Yadavs, owing allegiance to Sadhu. Gang-war statistics available indicate that more than 60 per cent of the killings in these two districts are related to land dispute and vendetta.

In contrast, Siwan is controlled by Shahabuddin, who, along with the Kishenganj heavyweight, Taslimuddin, control Laloo’s minority votebank. Though Siwan has a large presence of Yadav voters, they are outnumbered and politically overshadowed by the minorities. Shahabuddin’s enormous clout gives the local Muslim gangs an edge over their Yadav counterparts.

Yadav leaders have long resented this domination by the minorities in Siwan. The opposite is true for Gopalganj. The general contention is that in Laloo Prasad’s fiefdom, the Yadavs are the most powerful segment and the largest beneficiary of the social justice largesse. The Yadavs, used to basking in their leader’s glory for more than a decade, wear their attitude on their sleeves, much to the discomfort of the other RJD caste banks.

If the grapevine is to be believed, the skirmishes are the manifestations of a proxy war between Siwan strongman, Shahabuddin, and Sadhu Yadav, who is gaining power in Laloo’s absence. Muslims comprise nearly 15 per cent of the population in Bihar, whereas Yadavs 11 per cent. Now that both Laloo and Shahabuddin are away — the former in New Delhi and the latter in jail — the local leaders are flexing their muscles.

Other than Sadhu Yadav, a minister in the Rabri Devi government, Avadh Bihari Chowdhury, allegedly patronizes several gangs, along with Yadav legislators, Indradeo Prasad, Satyadeo Prasad Singh and Prabhu Dayal Singh. Sadhu Yadav is believed to be close to Avadh Bihari. RJD leaders feel that in Shahabuddin’s absence, Sadhu Yadav is trying to tip the balance in favour of the Yadavs by closing ranks with the local MLAs. Similarly, in Siwan, Shahabuddin’s equally notorious relative, Izazul Haque, the legislator from Jeerapehi, is calling the shots and is reportedly at daggers’ drawn with Sadhu Yadav.

Insiders blame Laloo Prasad for the cracks in the Muslim-Yadav plinth. According to them, the railway minister tries to please all and moves between the power centres to keep his “social justice” cogs spinning. As a result, the second line of leadership is filled with leaders with delusions of importance. “The burden of secularism is not as heavy on anyone’s shoulder as it is on Laloo Prasad’s,’’ says the Siwan politician.

After the 1989 Bhagalpur riots, the Muslims dumped the Congress. Smelling blood, Laloo Prasad moved in for the kill and forged a Muslim-Yadav alliance, ensuring protection to the Muslims in lieu of support. Unlike any other backward leader, he put “communal harmony” on the top of his political agenda. Since then, the state has witnessed two major communal flare-ups — one in old Patna city in 1990 and the other in Sitamarhi in 1992. But in both cases, Laloo Prasad was quick to assuage minority sentiments through a combination of public gimmicks, quick damage-control and personal touch.

Ironically, even the post-Bhagalpur political equation hinged on a dichotomy. Although the Muslims were disillusioned with the Congress after the Bhagalpur incident, investigations revealed that the Yadavs were actively involved. The patchwork that Laloo Prasad sewed together was unwieldy and still continues to show strains at the seams. Janata Parivar old-timers feel that the Muslims are at heart suspicious of the Yadavs, though the RJD is still their political choice. The reason: they feel safer in Bihar than in any other state.

However, of late, a section of minority leadership is trying to play on this latent hostility. Just before the recent Lok Sabha poll, three Muslim leaders — Monazir Hussain, Anwarul Haque and Shahid Khan — quit the party saying the minorities have been given a raw deal under his regime despite 14 years of unflinching support. The Dalit Muslims were said to be looking at an “alternative” beyond Laloo Prasad and the National Democratic Alliance.

The polarization looks set to deepen. The popular perception is that Shahabuddin is not averse to letting the schism widen to reap greater harvest in the forthcoming assembly polls. The Yadavs, on their part, are not prepared to take things lying down. Gopalganj and Siwan could well turn out to be an acid test for Laloo’s ability to balance the Muslim-Yadav equation when Bihar goes to the hustings in 2005. The railway minister had better look homeward before that.