OPINION: Anand Mohan’s release puts many to test

It was a beautiful winter evening in early December 1994, in a sleepy town close to the Bihar-Nepal border. I was studying for my college exams while a few staffers were chatting in the front verandah when the cook announced 'Saheb aa gaye'! I looked up from the notebooks as my elder uncle walked in and slumped on the sofa. He beckoned me to switch on the TV but all our efforts to involve him in conversation were futile. The only words he uttered were 'Krishnaiah... bechara'. And his voice choked. Nobody ate anything that night.

For the next two days, my uncle who was serving as the DM, went to few officers' meetings and condolences in the Collectorate but gloom was writ large on his face. I don't know what all was going on in his mind. As for myself, though not very familiar with the deeper nuances of politics, I was old enough to understand that the brutal roadside lynching of G. Krishnaiah, then DM of Gopalganj, was horrific even by standards of violence in the Bihar of early 90s.

Now Anand Mohan Singh, strong man, messiah-like figure for magazine covers, caste icon for some and murder convict is 'freed' from jail after remission of his sentence. His 'walking free' is only technical because he is already 'out' on parole for the much publicised engagement of his son. That's why all those sound bytes in his living room even before the release order.

Anand Mohan has been given the benefit of a recent amendment in the Bihar Police Jail Manuals, 2012, which allows remission of sentence after serving 14 years. This was facilitated by dropping the words '...civil servant on duty' from the list of offences where remission was not allowed up to 20 years in jail.

But Anand Mohan Singh's release puts a lot of people to test, in Bihar and beyond. Let us start with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the so-called 'Sushasan Babu' (Mr. Good Governance). The admiration he earned in his first term by giving a free hand to the police and prosecution against dreaded gangsters, stands obliterated.

It is laughable of the JDU spokesmen to claim that the proposal was mooted by Sushil Modi because the amendment has been effected on April 10, 2023, long after Kumar dumped the BJP for the RJD. So whether Sushil Modi wanted Anand Mohan out or not, he certainly wasn't in the Secretariat to get it done. Incidentally, Anand Mohan's son Chetan Singh is an RJD MLA. So much for the BJP's role. So Nitish Kumar has already failed the test.

The RJD (and perhaps Nitish too) are calculating that by releasing Anand Mohan, they will consolidate Rajput votes like never before. The caste already votes for 'Lalten' in many pockets. Thus, the BJP would be left with an extremely truncated vote share as the caste umbrella of the RJD-JDU looks much wider.

It remains to be seen how much of a force Anand Mohan still is in 2023-24. The coming days would be a test of his popularity or lack of it.

But the paradox is the situation also puts the BJP to test. Will the BJP also like to ride the Anand Mohan horse and try to consolidate the Rajputs in the process? If it does, what happens to the image of Narendra Modi, the only USP the party has in Bihar? Will BJP backroom strategists risk such a compromise for a section of Rajput votes which never voted for them en masse anyway?

This question is important because few BJP leaders are also indicating support for the move. Let us drop the moral question for a moment and look from a crassly real-politik angle? If the Rajputs indeed vote on the issue of Anand Mohan, why would vote for the BJP when it is the Mahagathbandhan that got him out?

Interestingly, this totally pathetic turn of events has also put the Rajputs of Bihar to test. Any caste, community can take a call about which political party/alliance to vote for en masse or otherwise. But do the Rajputs really want to be seen bracketed with the image of 69-year-old murder convict-gangster just because he is a 'swajatiya' (from the same caste)?

Is the aspirational Rajput youngster of Bihar, in 2023, ready to be taken for granted in this manner?

And no, it does not matter today if any JDU or spokesmen of any party thinks Anand Mohan was not directly involved in the gruesome killing. That ship sailed the day the court pronounced him guilty.

(Smita Mishra writes on politics and current affairs)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.