When the media overplays anything it often fails to analyse the issue in proper perspective. This is the case with the Shahabuddin episode.
The newspapers in Patna devoted two to three pages to him a day after his release and channels, especially the regional ones, went overboard in telecasting all aspects of his release. It is for the media to explain whether it is glorifying a criminal or exposing him.
But may one ask as to how much coverage did they give to the news of the acquital of Pappu Yadav in CPI (M) MLA Ajit Sarkar murder case and Suraj Bhan, Munna Shukla, Rajan Tiwari etc in former minister Brij Bihari murder case. If not why? And under which circumstances all of them got acquitted in such high-profile crimes? After all late Brij Bihari is the husband of present BJP MP Rama Devi.
Why no storm was raised when Pappu Yadav, who still ‘terrorizes’ doctors of Kosi belt, was provided Y-category security by Union home ministry, soon after leaving RJD.
Besides, Pappu and Sadhu Yadav get time from none else but Narendra Modi.
The media, in general, has not only lost objectivity, but many journalists have lost analytical sense.
Some of them went on to project Shahabuddin, as if he is the leader of Muslim community, and thus he is an asset for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
One journalist wrote that Shahabuddin is for Lalu what Azam Khan is for Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief.
An objective analysis would reveal that both of them are liabilities to their respective parties and not asset.
Is not it a fact that the ‘strongman’ of Siwan is actually electorally ‘weak’. His wife Hena Shahab lost Lok Sabha elections twice in 2009 and 2014. In 2009 she lost to an Independent candidate Om Prakash Yadav, and not to any JD(U)-BJP nominee though this combination swept that election.
In 2014 it was Narendra Modi wave which blew away Hena. This time O P Yadav now won as BJP candidate.
What is surprising is that the RJD lost the Assembly election of Siwan last year when the JD(U)-RJD-Congress won an unprecedented victory all over the state.
Why did not the fire-power of Shahabuddin ensure victory?
During the last Assembly election the same media made Asaduddin Owaisi a great hero, when the fact is that his party lost in all the six seats it contested in the Muslim dominated north-east Bihar.
The same happened at Rampur in UP––the home turf of Azam Khan. The BJP won the Lok Sabha election from there though about 50 per cent voters are Muslims.
The other fact is that it is RJD MLA from Raghunathpur, Hari Shankar Yadav, who equated Shahabuddin with Bhagwan and Janata Dal (United)’s Belhar MLA, Girdhari Yadav, who went to greet this don after his release. The party even issued notice to him.
Shahabuddin entered the Assembly for the first time in 1990 as an Independent candidate, that is just before the advent of Lalu Prasad. That was on his own strength.
He was the darling of many upper caste feudal elements, who would support him in his campaign against CPI ML, which still enjoy the support of a sizeable section of Dalits and Yadavs in Siwan.
However, later he joined the then Janata Dal in which Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav etc were prominent leaders. In 1995 he won the Assembly election as the Janata Dal candidate.
In 1996 he won the Lok Sabha election for the first time and went on to win in 1998, 1999 and 2004.
But more than his own strength it was the suitable social combination in the post-Mandal, post-Mandir days, which ensuured his victories.
One aspect which most journalist missed is that Shahabuddin grew when Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi were the chief minister. In contrast Suraj Bhan, Anand Mohan, Munna Shukla, Rajan Tiwari, Anant Singh, Sunil Pandey, Pappu Yadav etc unleashed their own brand of terror without enjoying the government patronage. The name of some of these gentlemen, for example, Anand Mohan, even figured in the lynching of the then Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnya, in 1994.
Today Shahabuddin has become a political liability for his own party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. Its chief, Lalu Prasad is not a fool, who would snap ties with Janata Dal (United) at such a crucial phase of his political revival for the sake of the man, who could not ensure victory to his own wife.
Lalu would let Shahabuddin speak nonsense and thus get more discredited until he fades away.
