Who is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to have reduced the country’s top female wrestlers to tears? According to residents in Gonda, Singh is a former wrestler from the bowels of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) countryside. He is a muscleman who has terrorised citizens from the foothills of the Himalayas to Ayodhya for over four decades.
The 66-year-old is Bharatiya Janata Party’s Member of Parliament (MP) from the Gonda district in eastern UP, and also president of the Wrestling Federation of India. Singh is accused of sexual exploitation and the mental torture of female wrestlers.
One resident in Gonda told The Citizen that Singh is known to them but they like to keep a distance from him. In Gonda, Singh is not considered a Robin Hood but a criminal even more dreaded than those shot dead by the police, and in police custody, in recent times.
“Singh is a strongman who is feared throughout eastern UP. He is a well-known criminal. He is a land grabber who changes political parties according to convenience. He makes sure that he is on the right side of whichever political party is in power and that way he remains safe despite all the wrong that he does,’ Singh’s neighbour in Gonda said, with a request that names not be mentioned.
Singh is a politician with clout who has won Lok Sabha elections six times, once on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate.
He was part of the Babri Mosque demolition in 1992 and was arrested. In 1996 he was jailed for being close to underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim.
During that time former BJP Prime Minister (PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee wrote him a letter, saying not to lose hope.
Vajpayee said that if Singh is deprived of good days at the moment then bad days too will not last long. In the letter the former PM advised the imprisoned Singh to read, listen to music and to be happy, promising that he would visit him soon.
The letter dated 30 May, 1996 was written in Hindi, and stated:
“Dear Brajbhushan Ji,
Greetings and love. Got your news. Will have to try for bail afresh. Be courageous. If there are no good days, then there will definitely not be bad days either.
“Remember Savarkar Ji who was sentenced to life imprisonment. Read, listen to music. Be happy. I will come soon. Do not lose courage, do not forget the name of Hari.
Jahi Vidhi Rakhe Ram, Tahi Vidhi rahiiye.”
If action is taken against Singh today, the ruling party could lose influence over at least 12 Lok Sabha seats.
A Glowing Example
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a glowing example of the increasing criminalisation of politics in UP. The rule of law is replaced by a rule by money and muscle power. The tragedy is that both the political elite as well as the masses seem to accept values that undermine democracy.
Today politics has become the shelter of many more criminals and rowdies. And the situation is worse in UP. Politics is played out more like a business with unimaginable profits rather than a promise to ensure social justice in society.
Criminals are nurtured in politics today for the unlawful services they offer, including the buying of votes during election time. The reward is a position in active politics, leading to the criminalisation of public life and encouraging contempt for the rule of law amongst citizens in general.
The biggest challenge before UP is to separate the politics of the day from criminal activities of muscle men and money bags.
Close Encounters
According to the UP Police more than 10,900 police encounters have taken place in the state since March 2017. “As many as 183 criminals have been gunned down in police encounters in the state since March 20, 2017,” Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told PTI.
The ruling party insists that the law and order has improved since it came to power in 2017. However SP chief and main opposition party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that the gunning down of citizens by the police in mostly fake encounters is not justice but murder.
“The BJP government is trying to divert attention from real issues by encouraging encounters. The BJP does not believe in the rule of law and courts at all,” Yadav said.
Several questions are raised today over the high number of police encounters in the state.
Who is Anand Mohan Singh?
Former Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is mad at the release of gangster Anand Mohan Singh from a jail in Bihar.
Singh was sentenced to death for inciting the murder of Dalit IAS officer and District Magistrate of Gopalganj G. Krishnaiah in 1994. That sentence was converted to life imprisonment later.
But the Bihar government changed rules earlier this month for the release of Anand Mohan, making Mayawati see red. She tweeted that the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was anti-Dalit.
Krishnaiah was 37 years old when he was lynched to death by a mob led by Anand Mohan in Muzaffarpur during the funeral of criminal Chotan Shukla, who was killed in a police encounter.
On his release, Anand Mohan said that he is ready to return to active politics.
This is the reason perhaps why Mayawati refused to meet Nitish Kumar when he visited Lucknow last Monday. Nitish Kumar is travelling to different parts of the country meeting leaders of different political parties to talk about a united opposition to defeat the ruling party at the polls.
In Lucknow, Nitish Kumar met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. When asked by a reporter at a brief press conference if he would meet Mayawati, the Bihar CM said that this time he is in Lucknow to meet Akhilesh Yadav.
Local Body Elections
Besides, Mayawati is busy with the local body elections. The Dalit leader has given 11 tickets to Muslim candidates to contest for the post of mayor.
However, it is the ruling party that is expected to sweep the local body elections when voting takes place on May 4 and May 11. The results will be announced after counting begins on May 13.
Out of 17 seats being contested for the post of mayor, as many as 16 seats could go to the ruling party. Analysts predict that the Firozabad and Prayagraj seats look good for the SP.
However, it is uncertain how many seats the BSP will bag? It is suspected that the BSP has jumped into the fray more to spoil chances for any wins by the SP than to seek victory for itself.