The prodigals fast

There are quirks of fate that provide opportunities to the devil to read the gospel back to us. Right now,the devil reading the gospel is none other than Rajesh Ranjan,alias Pappu Yadav,serving a life sentence in Patnas Beur jail for the 1998 murder of CPM legislator Ajit Sarkar. He has found a cause in social activist Anna Hazares much-publicised fast-unto-death over which version of the Jan Lokpal Bill should become law. Yadav is inflicting upon himself his ownfast-unto-death,refusing to quit till Hazares vision of a body politic rid of corruption becomes reality.

Well,the law took its time to catch up with the former four-time MP. The Ajit Sarkar case is the only one that got Yadav convicted in 2008. But its only one among several cases pending against him. The life term resulted in Yadav being barred from contesting the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and eventually in his expulsion from the RJD,whose membership he had held off and on,flirting in between with the Samajwadi Party and the LJP. His story is not unique. But its the individual who changes the contours and trajectory of crime to become the thing-in-itself. From allegedly a petty cycle thief,Yadav grew into a mafia don along each step up the political ladder.

Its the system that allowed him to thrive before finally putting him away that Yadav now wants cleansed. Should we be moved? Should we rebuke ourselves for even noticing? At least,nobody is screaming his name in parks and town squares. To read the Bible like the devil means reading what and how one wants to. But everything the devil does is tailored to serve his self-same purpose of old,because,to begin with,it is insincere.