IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri's Snaps
It was not that criminalisation of politics was the gift of the Lalu-Rabri regime
. It was always there in one form or the other. It was just that with the advent of Lalu, the monopoly of upper caste ganglords was broken for the first time. The confidence among the backward castes manifested itself in several ways, including criminalisation. Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav was one such manifestation. And unlike several other musclemen who opted for established political parties, Pappu Yadav entered the political arena as an independent.
When Pappu started his career as an MLA from Singheshwar Assembly constituency in Madhepura, he already had a dozen-odd cases against him. But soon he shifted his base to neighbouring Purnea where Ajit Sarkar of the CPI(M) ruled the roost. Sarkar epitomised everything that Pappu was not and thus was an ideological and political threat to Pappu. Pappu took this animosity to his heart. On June 14, 1998, Sarkar was gunned down along with a few of his cadres. Pappu got implicated and the routine round
s to courts started. People lost count of the number of times he went to the jail and was released. However, unwary of all these, Pappu continued to operate freely from the jail itself. Later he was shifted to Tihar in Delhi. He has such a long list of cases that people say that everyday in this country a court hears a case against him. Pappu's political graph, however, never dipped in between. He became an MP and continued to win. Pappu rules the roost in eastern and north-eastern Bihar. He has caught the imagination of the youth from a particular community. When he saw that his political career was threatened because of the number of cases aginst him, he brought his glamorous wife Ranjita Ranjan to the fray in 2004. However, she lost the 2009 election on a Congress ticket. So, for all practical purposes, Ranjita is politically unemployed these days. However, she is active in her own right. She keeps the Congress rank and file on their toes with her aggressive demeanor. She couldn't see eye to eye with state Congress president Anil Sharma and hence kept pestering him whenever an opportunity arose. Anil, in a singing remark that was obviously directed against her and her husband, said that there was no place for criminals in politics. Her supporters retaliated by disrupting public meetings in several places.
Pappu Yadav's supporters have constituted an apolitical group called 'Yuva Shakti Sangathan' that works for their cause. In fact, the organisation acts as a bulwark to the duo. Ranjita is active and keeps travelling a lot to several cities where Pappu's cases are pending. Their kids study in a prestigious public school in Delhi. They don't come to Bihar very often. Their supporters, as expected, swear that their netaji is an epitome of innocence.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
It was not that criminalisation of politics was the gift of the Lalu-Rabri regime
. It was always there in one form or the other. It was just that with the advent of Lalu, the monopoly of upper caste ganglords was broken for the first time. The confidence among the backward castes manifested itself in several ways, including criminalisation. Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav was one such manifestation. And unlike several other musclemen who opted for established political parties, Pappu Yadav entered the political arena as an independent.When Pappu started his career as an MLA from Singheshwar Assembly constituency in Madhepura, he already had a dozen-odd cases against him. But soon he shifted his base to neighbouring Purnea where Ajit Sarkar of the CPI(M) ruled the roost. Sarkar epitomised everything that Pappu was not and thus was an ideological and political threat to Pappu. Pappu took this animosity to his heart. On June 14, 1998, Sarkar was gunned down along with a few of his cadres. Pappu got implicated and the routine round
s to courts started. People lost count of the number of times he went to the jail and was released. However, unwary of all these, Pappu continued to operate freely from the jail itself. Later he was shifted to Tihar in Delhi. He has such a long list of cases that people say that everyday in this country a court hears a case against him. Pappu's political graph, however, never dipped in between. He became an MP and continued to win. Pappu rules the roost in eastern and north-eastern Bihar. He has caught the imagination of the youth from a particular community. When he saw that his political career was threatened because of the number of cases aginst him, he brought his glamorous wife Ranjita Ranjan to the fray in 2004. However, she lost the 2009 election on a Congress ticket. So, for all practical purposes, Ranjita is politically unemployed these days. However, she is active in her own right. She keeps the Congress rank and file on their toes with her aggressive demeanor. She couldn't see eye to eye with state Congress president Anil Sharma and hence kept pestering him whenever an opportunity arose. Anil, in a singing remark that was obviously directed against her and her husband, said that there was no place for criminals in politics. Her supporters retaliated by disrupting public meetings in several places.Pappu Yadav's supporters have constituted an apolitical group called 'Yuva Shakti Sangathan' that works for their cause. In fact, the organisation acts as a bulwark to the duo. Ranjita is active and keeps travelling a lot to several cities where Pappu's cases are pending. Their kids study in a prestigious public school in Delhi. They don't come to Bihar very often. Their supporters, as expected, swear that their netaji is an epitome of innocence.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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