D. P. Ojha is being seen as the lone ranger fighting against Laloo Yadav’s jungle raj. The tussle between the ex-DG and the RJD chief is more complex than it seems.

Newspaper readers and television viewers in Bihar are a confused lot these days. They aren’t sure whether it was Laloo Prasad Yadav who had used the outgoing director general of police, D.P. Ojha, for political ends to teach his own party MP, Mohammad Shahabuddin, a lesson, or whether Ojha is an upright and honest officer out to fight the system headed by the RJD chief.

For four months — from July 30 to November 29 — people were fed the news that Laloo Yadav wanted to fix Shahabuddin and no police officer was as pliable for the job as Ojha. The media highlighted how the Muslim-Yadav combination had collapsed in Bihar and how Laloo Yadav would have to pay a heavy price for the breakdown in the next election. Some newspapers even went on to write that Laloo wanted to cut Shahabuddin to size as the latter was fast emerging as “the leader of the Muslim community”.

It was on July 30 that Ojha first told the media that the police were going to pursue criminal cases pending against the notorious RJD MP. Laloo was then on a pilgrimage to Amarnath. Shahabuddin was left with no option but to surrender a week later. Then one fine afternoon on November 29, Ojha, while speaking at Asia’s largest cattle fair at Sonepur, chose to directly attack Laloo Yadav. He dubbed the politician as a ‘lafanga’ (rascal) and didn’t mince words to denounce the state government. He alleged that 80 per cent of the police force in Bihar was corrupt, thus inviting the wrath of police unions. He alleged that Shahabuddin was being patronised by none other than Laloo Yadav. Three days later, at the Patna Book Fair, Ojha made a similar remark. The media suddenly changed gear and started projecting him as a crusader against corruption.

The BJP, which till the other day had been accusing Ojha of dancing to the tune of Laloo, also changed its stance and started noticing the admiring qualities of the outgoing police chief. The truth, however, is that in the last eight years, no IPS officer in Bihar has been pilloried so much by the opposition BJP in the state as Ojha. This is primarily because the police chief’s name figured prominently in the fodder scam. But politicians have the freedom to change tack at the drop of a hat. Yesterday’s enemy becomes today’s friend.

The media, however, is not so quick at making U-turns. It isn’t for the first time that the media have committed a faux pas. When the Pratapur incident took place on March 16-17, 2001 — when the Siwan police force revolted and made an attempt to ‘liquidate’ Shahabuddin in his village — most of the prominent journalists repeatedly highlighted that Laloo Yadav wanted to eliminate his own party MP. A few days after the incident, it was clear that there was nothing to it but a police revolt. The police had also shut the district magistrate and deputy inspector general in a room threatening that they would be shot. In all, 11 people were killed in the fight between policemen and supporters of the Siwan MP that eventful night.

Even then, the media had gone to town about the collapse of the Muslim-Yadav combination. Today, suddenly both Ojha and the BJP are alleging that the state is being run by Shahabuddin from behind bars. Strangely, it is the press that is writing that Waris Hayat Khan has been made the new DGP at the instance of Shahabuddin, when the plain fact is that after Ojha he was the senior-most IPS officer in the state. Ojha was to retire on February 20, and Khan a month later. Khan was in the race for this post when Ojha was made DGP.

The real question remains unanswered: is Laloo Yadav Shahabuddin’s friend or does the RJD chief actually want to throw away the key of the cell in which Shahabuddin is jailed in? The media need to clarify this poser. Nobody is defending Laloo Yadav today.

But isn’t it a fact that Ojha is the same person against whom the CBI in October 2002 sought departmental proceeding as he, both as DIG and IG of vigilance, “collusively entertained and tacitly endorsed” the illegitimate request of former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra to confine the investigation to the purchase committee of the animal husbandry department? Someone needs to clear the fog in Bihar first. Then, the finger pointing will be much less confusing.

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