Bihar's Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav

Bihar is a land of paradoxes. And Laloo Prasad Yadav, the State's scam-tainted messiah of the weak and the meek, epitomises its immense tolerance for the incompatibles. Now that he has been put in the dock by the CBI and even his friends have deserted his sinking ship, his eulogy by bought over bards like S. Paul (see box) may sound funny now. But not so long ago even West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had praised Laloo's commitment to the downtrodden and predicted that he would rule for another ten years.

That Laloo stands in the dock in the company of his predecessor Jagannath Mishra, whose ``corrupt Congress regime'' he dislodged in 1990 to usher in a social revolution is not coincidental. It shows that the politics of pro-Mandal forces, which Laloo represents, is merely an elitist version of the politics of social justice. The seven-year Laloo-raj maintained a continuity with the political interests of the ruling classes, specially the landed gentry and the big business interests, and only sought to replace the Congress and BJP as the number one ruling party within the framework of the ruling classes.

Ironically, Laloo himself had sown the seeds of this marriage of convenience when, as the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly, he lobbied with Chief Minister Mishra for the appointment of Dr Raja Ram -- now a co-accused with them as director of Bihar's Animal Husbandry Department (AHD).

Mishra did the same as the Leader of the Opposition during the Laloo regime when he wrote to Laloo on December 5, 1993 to extend the services of Dr Shyam Bihari Sinha, the kingpin of the fodder mafia. Mishra also opposed the criminal cases against two AHD officers in the State Assembly.

The list of the fodder scam accused persons gives an insight into how this continuity was maintained. Apart from Laloo and Mishra, other top politicians booked by the CBI include, Union Minister Chandradeo Verma, Bihar ministers Bholoa Ram Toofani and Vidyasagar Nishad, Janata Dal (JD) legislator R.K. Rana, BJP leader and former PAC chairman Shruva Bhagat and present PAC Chairman Jagdish Sharma (Congress).

There are others, who were involved even though the CBI is not proceeding against them at this stage. Rajya Sabha member Gyan Ranjan, former Bihar speaker Radhanandan Jha (Congress), Samata Party chief Nitish Kumar and his friends, such as Shivanand Tiwari, Ramdeo Singh and Ram Jatan Sinha (all Samata Party). BJP leaders Suryamani Singh, Nirbhay Kumar Singh, Gulshan Kumar Ajamni, Duti Paran, Ramchandra Baitha also received kickbacks if the recorded statements are true.

The presence of six senior IAS officers among the accused persons shows how the bureaucratic elite gratuitously lent its helping hand in looting the State treasury. Mishra had started the practice by making the transfer and posting of officials, especially in departments like public works, irrigation, health and education which had plenty of funds.

Laloo perfected the art. By the time he took over from Mishra, the Bihar Government coffers were almost empty. Laloo, therefore concentrated on siphoning off funds obtained from Delhi for centrally sponsored schemes which were implemented by the district magistrates. As a senior bureaucrat puts it: ``Laloo packed key posts in the Secretariat with his henchmen and made unabashed use of the district magistrates as `fund raisers'.''

The rags to riches stories in the AHD show how this was done. Rana, one of Laloo's active collaborators in the AHD scam, graduated from the Patna Veterinary College and worked as a medical representative and a veterinary surgeon in the AHD before joining the Janata Dal in 1995 to become an MLA.

Rana was the local guardian of Laloo's two children studying at a Ranchi public school. CBI and Income Tax raids have now unearthed assets worth Rs 8 crore in the name of Rana and his family.

Mohammed Sayeed, also in jail, had a tailoring outfit in Ranchi before turning into a prosperous AHD supplier overnight, wining and dining with the political bigwigs of Bihar, including the Chief Minister and the Governor. He received Rs 26 crore from AHD and was known to raise funds and manpower for Laloo's rallies.

Dayananda Kashyap was a small-time trader in Ranchi before he became a fodder supplier. He became one of the principal Janata Dal fund raisers and was given a ministerial rank by Laloo for his services. When he started growing too big and releasing full page advertisements in newspapers to project himself as another dharatiputra (son of the soil), Laloo threw him out of the party and his AHD supply orders stopped all of a sudden. Kashyap contested 1995 elections against JD and lost.

Bihar Samata Party spokesman A.K. Sinha appears to have a point when he says: ``Laloo realised that corruption is the lowest common denominator among all political parties in Bihar and exploited this to perpetuate his corrupt regime.''

But there is a difference. While perpetuating corruption fostered by the previous Congress regimes, Laloo did manage to replace the upper-caste domination in the State's patronage network by a new set of ruling elite dominated by the Yadavs. This gradually led to disenchantment among other influential backward castes in Bihar, like the Kurmis and Koeries who felt they were being denied their legitimate share of the loot.

The political opposition to Laloo, thus, is neither ideological nor based on any moral considerations. It comprises the upper castes' new champion, the BJP, as well as social justice votaries of the Samata Party.

Laloo The Myth & The Reality

Laloo is a magician

Whose magic entraps

The whole of society

In its charm, its wraps....

Laloo is the expression

Of the feelings of the weak

Of the downtrodden, the poor,

Of the minorities and the meek....

Where poor becomes

Poorer and rich, richer

Where fool by be fooling

Becomes a preacher,

There men like Laloo

Come to save

The suffering masses

And their way to pave!

Excerpts

From Laloonama in English, authored by S. Paul (believed to be a pseudonym). After Laloo Chalisa and similar poetic eulogies published in Hindi and its dialects, the English masterpiece was brought out on the eve of 1996 general elections, to project Laloo as prime ministerial material. Five lakh copies were printed for circulation in non-Hindi-speaking areas.

Till 1990, Congress governments only looted Rs 40 crore from the State Treasury in the fodder scam. In the five years after 1990, the Laloo Government looted Rs 2,000 crore on this count. In addition, it was involved in other acts of plunder such as forest scam, alkatra scam, medicine scam, land scam etc. totalling to Rs 10,000 crore. All this happened with his knowledge, consent, and active collusion....

Bihar's 40 per cent population was below the poverty line when Laloo became the Chief Minister in 1990. Today its percentage has gone up to 50. As a result of Laloo Government's extravagance and loot of the public exchequer, Bihar today is reeling under a debt burden of over Rs 18,000 crore. On an average, every adult Bihari in the Laloo raj is under a debt of Rs 2,000....

Excerpts

From Chara Chor -- Khajana Chor, a booklet by BJP leaders Sarayoo Rai and Sushil Modi, whose Public Interest Litigation in Patna High Court has led to the CBI charge-sheet against Laloo Prasad Yadav and 55 others in the animal hubandry scam.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.