Ground Report: Lalu or Nitish, the fear of ‘jungle raj’ keeps haunting Bihar

The brazen murder of businessman Gopal Khemka has come as a big embarrassment for the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar just ahead of the Assembly elections.

While the NDA government doesn’t tire of accusing the former RJD government of bringing down “jungle raj” upon the state, Gopal’s younger brother Shankar Khemka has publicly described the present law-and-order scenario in the state “worse than what it was in the past”.

“The [NDA] government repeatedly refers to [RJD patriarch] Lalu Prasad’s rule as ‘jungle raj’, but for us, the current situation is even worse,” said a furious Shankar, a businessman himself.

Brazen murder

Gopal (65), who was known to be close to the ruling BJP, was shot dead by a helmeted biker in Patna late on Friday (July 4), sparking a fresh fear of lawlessness returning to Bihar. He was the eighth businessmen killed in the last sixth months in the state.

“Lalu ka ‘jungle raj’ isse badhiya tha, humlog safe thay. Aaj koi surakhshit nahi hai” (Lalu’s jungle raj was better than this. We were safe. Today, no one is safe,” fumed Shankar.

Shankar’s remark is not only a big embarrassment for the Nitish government; it has also overturned the much-publicised claim of “kanoon ka raj” (rule of law) and “sushasan” (good governance) repeatedly made by the NDA dispensation.

Also read: Bihar: Trader killed 7 years after son’s murder; Nitish calls law-and-order meet

Business community’s fears

Shankar’s words echo the changing perception of law and order on the ground and the growing fear among the business community as well as among the common people regarding their safety.

Gopal had just returned from Bankipore club and was shot dead from a close range near the gate of his apartment in a posh locality, hardly 300 metres from Gandhi Maidan police station, in the heart of Patna.

It was second big loss for the Khemka family, as his elder son Gunjan was killed at the age of 38 in a similar fashion in December 2018. Gunjan was shot dead in broad daylight near the gate of his factory in Hajipur industrial area in Vaishali district, about 30 km from Patna.

The police failed to crack the case.

In the case of Gopal’s murder, too, more than 60 hours have elapsed, but the police are yet to make a breakthrough in the case. No arrest has been made so far, though over a dozen suspects have been detained by the police after raids at 14 places.

Top police officials told the media that the forces have got some “clues” but refused to disclose those.

Traders under threat

The Khemkas are not the only ones. Industrialist Ajay Singh, who has a plant in Buxar district, reportedly told the Khemkas during a courtesy visit on Sunday that he also received death threats. Apparently, several other businessmen are also facing similar threats from criminals.

Singh was reportedly upset that despite informing the chief minister and the Home department, nothing has been done yet.

Office bearers of the Bihar Industries Association (BIA) and Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI) have also publicly expressed serious concern and questioned the poor law and order following Khemka’s murder.

Also read: Robbers murder Govt engineer, Mohammad Mumtaz in Muzaffarpur, businessman killed in Patna

Delayed response

Several businessmen have expressed anger that the police took nearly two hours to reach the site of crime after Khemka’s murder although the nearest police station is hardly 300 metres away.

“The [law-and-order] situation is really bad; this is more or less like a jungle raj, and it is difficult to run businesses without fear. Some businessmen have sought security and arms licence to protect themselves,” said a well-known businessman of Patna on condition of anonymity.

Spate of crimes

This fear has percolated among common people, too, as incidents of crime are steadily rising in the state. Take for example, the stabbing to death of engineer Md Mumtaz in front of his wife and children, inside his own house, by criminals in Muzaffarpur district.

Similarly, a school owner, Ajeet Kumar, was shot dead in Danapur area in Patna while a double murder took place in Nalanda district — all in the past 24 hours. On Saturday, a small trader, Vishwanath Shah, was killed by unidentified criminals in East Champaran’s Motihari.

In another example of the rising crime graph, three people were shot and stabbed to death and three seriously injured at Malmalia Chowk under Bhagwanpurhat police station in Siwan district last Thursday following a violent clash between two groups over some old dispute.

However, local people claimed that the henchmen of a powerful liquor mafia gang attacked and killed these men for informing the police about their lucrative illegal liquor trade in a dry state.

In a separate incident on Friday night, a youth was lynched in a village in Vaishali district on suspicion of theft in a case of street justice, which is common in rural Bihar.

Also read: Nitish Kumar faces 'jungle raj' charge as crime graph soars: Bihar ground report

Police not spared

Such is the situation that dozens of police teams have been attacked and seriously injured by the powerful sand and liquor mafia while conducting raids in the past one year.

All these incidents reflect the deteriorating law and order in a state that is months away from a crucial assembly election.

In recent days, the spurt in crimes is being reported in local Hindi dailies regularly. These include everything from murder to rape to kidnappings to lootings to extortion demands to bank robbery.

Lalu-Rabri years

There is no denying the fact that the official crime data of the Lalu-Rabri period reveals poor law and order in the state. While Tejashwi’s father Lalu Prasad was chief minister from 1990 to 1997, his wife Rabri Devi took over from 1997 to 2005.

But even 19 years after the RJD was ousted from power in Bihar, BJP and ally JD(U) leaders let go of no opportunity to remind the people of their “misrule”, terming it as “jungle raj” (wild rule).

The rule of law has been JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar’s primary political plank since he came to power in November 2005. Even during the Lok Sabha election campaign last year, BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, and Nitish used the “jungle raj” narrative to remind people of those “dark days”. This year, too, during five visits to Bihar, Modi has relentlessly reminded people of “jungle raj” in public meetings.

Also read: Bihar: Rape victim dies at Patna hospital, Cong accuses Nitish govt of 'insensitivity'

Tejashwi’s counter-narrative

To counter this narrative, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, has been since last year constantly posting on his X handle about the rising crime graph, terming it as the “Maha-Jungle Raj” in Bihar.

Tejashwi, the chief ministerial candidate of the opposition Mahagathbandhan, has also been repeatedly accusing the local media of not giving proper space to serious crime incidents on the front page under pressure from the government.

Surprisingly, NDA leaders, including Nitish Kumar, have so far maintained a stoic silence on the rising crime graph in Bihar. A few months ago, Tejashwi revealed that according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 65,000 murders and 25,000 rapes took place in Bihar during Nitish Kumar’s nearly 20-year rule. Last month, official data of Bihar Police revealed that 116 murders took place in Patna only in the past four months.

Not everyone convinced

However, a sizeable section of people, mostly middle and upper middle class in rural as well as urban areas, are still not convinced that RJD will be any better this time. “We know crimes are rising and law-and-order situation is not good. But it will get worse if RJD returns to power. There will be a real jungle raj,” claimed Bablu Singh, a state government staffer.

“There is a deep fear of the return of jungle raj if the RJD returns to power in the state and this factor is being exploited by the NDA since 2005 to the woo people during elections,” said Santosh Choudhary, an advocate of Patna civil court.