Unemployment is on the decline in Bihar, thanks to the swelling kidnapping industry which invites the youth with open arms, writes NALIN VERMA



‘INFRASTRUCTURAL poverty pervades all sectors in Bihar,” screams the Bihar Development Report prepared by Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, and sponsored by the Planning Commission. But the country’s top academics and policymakers dealing with cumbersome development statistics have failed to notice the alarming growth of infrastructure that supports the “kidnapping industry” in the state. Here are some startling statistics. The undivided state registered 212 cases of kidnapping for ransom in 1990. It was bifurcated into Jharkhand and the rest of Bihar in 2001 and truncated Bihar registered 382 cases of abduction in 2002.

No other industry in Bihar has generated as much “employment” as the “kidnapping industry”. In 1988, the police recorded 91 kidnapping gangs operating in the state. Today Bihar has 175 of these gangs which employ thousands of youths. And the “Raja of Bihar”, Laloo Prasad Yadav, recently said that the gangs had also “drafted” in many girls to “lure” moneyed professionals.

These gangs have swelled by leaps and bounds. And this has spelt the flight of countless traders, industrialists and other professionals from the state in the last 13 years or so. As a result there has been a decline in business, trade and industrial activities. Needless to say the state now occupies an unenviable position on the country’s industrial map.

Although kidnapping is an old “profession” in Bihar, there has been a marked change in the trend in the last three or four years. Political parties or leaders have figured in almost all the cases. The police found Samata Party MLA Sunil Pandey and Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Vijendra Yadav’s brother, Anil Singh, to be the “masterminds” of the latest incident involving the abduction of noted neurosurgeon Dr Ramesh Chandra. The Samata Party expelled Pandey following the incident. But the fact remains that George Fernandes’ party still has about half a dozen leaders like Sunil Pandey.

Dr Ramesh Chandra’s captors called Union minister for small scale industries Dr CP Thakur’s house in Patna, thus revealing his association with them. Few were ready to believe the renowned physician could have had anything to do with the kidnapping of Dr Chandra. But then few can deny Dr Thakur’s links with the likes of Sunil Pandey and other “tough” guys in Bikram area who “manage the affairs” during his elections.

Sultan Mia, a dreaded gangster now in police custody, was involved in the kidnapping of noted Patna-based orthopedic surgeon Dr Bharat Singh in February. Mia is reported to be the “right hand man” of Md Shahabuddin, RJD MP from Siwan, who in turn is the “strength” of Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Ironically, Shahabuddin and Laloo Yadav are not seeing eye to eye ever since the latter got DP Ojha appointed as Director-General of Police while the former wanted WH Khan to head the state police.

The latest trend in kidnapping shows the dependence of political parties on criminals who “manage booths” for the concerned parties. Obviously, political parties and their leaders can’t hit at their “source of power”. NDA constituents go hammer and tongs against the Laloo-Rabri regime when the names of RJD men figure in kidnapping cases. Similarly, Laloo Yadav stretches his vocal chords to the maximum against his opponents when the police nab a kidnapper even remotely linked with the NDA. The blame game thus goes on.

But there is not a single political party in the state which is ready to shun the company of kidnappers and other criminals. A top-ranking police officer, while talking to the media, narrated the sequel of events related to his appointment to the key position he was in. “You know what the de facto Raja of Bihar told me after appointing me to this position?” he asked. “He said, ‘While taking on the criminals you have to ensure that my government doesn’t fall’”. What more proof is required of Laloo’s links with criminals?

The DGP’s statement after the rescue of Dr Ramesh Chandra makes things more obvious: Is hamam mein sabhi nange hain (everyone is naked in this bath pond). Be it Laloo Prasad Yadav or Nitish Kumar or Ram Vilas Paswan — they are all part of the same game.

There is evidence to suggest that almost all the leaders who matter in the state’s politics have directly or indirectly contributed to the stupendous growth of the “kidnapping industry” of Bihar. In 1990, Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar, then working as “comrades-in-arms”, fielded a notorious gangster of Saharsa region as the Janata Dal candidate for the Assembly election. When questioned, both Kumar and Yadav said: “We are trying to bring criminals on the right path.”

But sadly, as expected, the criminals have not given up their path. Rather, the politicians have adjusted to the path of criminals.

Communal riots were the order of the day in Bihar before Laloo Prasad Yadav’s rise to power. The 1988-89 Bhagalpur riots engulfed over 1,700 lives before Laloo Yadav took the mantle of the state in 1990. Barring a stray riot in Sitamarhi, the state has witnessed no major riot during the 13 years of the Laloo-Rabri regime. The RJD chief boasts of having ended communal riots and ensured harmony in Bihar. He definitely deserves to be commended for this.

But then the question arises: How could the man, who put an end to communal riots with an iron hand fail so miserably in containing kidnapping and improving the overall law and order situation in the state? Answers Opposition leader Sushil Kumar Modi: “It’s not that he has failed to control the law and order situation. Laloo Yadav simply doesn’t want to snuff out the kidnapping business, because doing so will ruin his political interests.”

Modi may be right. But how does it help cleanse the mess? The fact remains that no political party seems interested in trying to root out the kidnapping industry which is slowly and steadily turning out to be the main of source of sustenance for leaders across party lines.

Nalin Verma
The author is The Statesman’s Patna-based Special Representative.