The Raja146;s comeback

Way from the political din over 8216;8216;tainted ministers8217;8217;, the tainted march into our governments. In times when downsizing is the good word, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has just taken a new minister into his government. Meet Minister Number 60. He is Raghuraj Pratap Singh, aka Raja Bhaiyya. He has 32 cases still pending against him. He spent a year and a half in jail on Pota charges and his palatial estates yielded an AK-56 with three magazines, a telescopic rifle, explosives, revolvers and a human skull and bones to police investigations two years ago. He was barred by the Election Commission from entering the Pratapgarh constituency until elections were over in the Lok Sabha elections in 1998 following complaints that he and his supporters had beaten up police personnel and supporters of the candidate of a rival party. Of course, the directive of externment was eventually quashed on technical grounds by the Allahabad High Court. It has never been easy to keep Raja Bhaiyya out. As he assumes ministerial charge again, the question is: does it even matter anymore?

The Pratapgarh strongman8217;s bold career graph, still on the rise, is an especially evocative peg to hang the larger tale. The story of the many incestuous connections that have grown and thrived between crime and politics is an old one. We can recite it by rote now: the decline of the political party on the ground; the politician8217;s increased reliance on money and muscle power to see him through on voting day; the goonda and the moneybag becoming the winning candidate himself. The saga that has carried chargesheeted individuals into our legislatures and our ministries didn8217;t play behind our backs. It was out there, for everyone to see. Nearly every political party has lent a shoulder to its unfolding. We the people have watched and voted for the chargesheeted and the criminal, from our ringside seats.

So is it possible to dredge up any sense of scandal now as Raja Bhaiyya takes the ministerial oath again? Or will the acknowledgement of a collective guilt be used as an alibi for the individual, and as exoneration for the phenomenon, once again? That is the question in UP. And for the nation.