Baahubalis create stories, act in them, power them all, and sometimes live the stories in their story. This breed, so firmly entrenched in Indian politics for decades now, has completely over-hauled the way democracy interacts with the way social activism behaves, the directions that justice for those in need must adopt, and even the art of administering. Quite unexpectedly, their interventions are not without threats to life, extortions, kidnappings, rapes, and even murders. Rajesh Singh writes in his book ‘Baahubalis of Indian Politics’ that this road-map from bullet to the ballot has ‘prospered primarily because of complicity of the mainstream influencers in society, be they academicians, the media, established political parties, the police or the administration in general’. Even a cursory look at the sort of headlines read by the common man is enough proof that their stories get us all hooked. Thus ‘Bahubalis in jail – better halves join poll fray’, ‘Bihar elections: Bahubalis, their kin call the shots again’, ‘Latest on Bahubali politicians’, ‘Concept of Bahubalis in politics’, ‘Bahubalis: indispensable to Indian politics’, Bahubalis – the entire story’, and ‘The rise and fall of Bahubalis’ are all headlines that have intriguing, thrilling, and perennially destructive stories in the matrix of their narrative.
This book profiles 11 prominent ‘musclemen-politicians euphemistically called baahubalis’ who tend to go on infiltrating the system to remain in circulation as they understand better than anyone else the power of money to influence decision-making. The stories of these musclemen-politicians like Arun Gawli, Mohammad Shahabuddin, Shibu Soren, Pappu Yadav, Amarmani Tripathi, Mukhtar Ansari and others have narratives that are just as gripping as those that keep the adrenalin pumping in thrillers, mysteries, and suspense fiction. The only fact that makes these stories more treacherous is that they have happened to real people and have possibly destroyed lives and homes and left a lot of innocents completely disoriented and broken. These baahubali-politicians who mastermind extortions, run protection rackets, and arm-twist organizations – even government run ones are able to do this because they have transformed their ability to persuade, intimidate, and eliminate their targets into an artform. The existence of the muscleman-politician isn’t a phenomenon that is limited to our country. This is a fairly common occurrence in the political system of other countries as well, even developed ones. However, our baahubali-netas come festooned with stories that are definitely unique in many ways. They fall in love, write books, quote religious texts fluently, hobnob with intellectuals, and sometimes are even capable to create productive strategies.
The introduction to this book is just as interesting as the rest of the content because the writer dissects the reasons why this phenomenon exists and thrives. According to the author the Sicilian ‘mafiusu’ or the ‘one with a swagger’ had over time turned itself into the Italian ‘mafioso’ that means fearlessness… and it is this etymological definition that fits the Indian baahubali-politician best. Now because Sicily was an Islamic emirate from 831-1072 CE, the Arabic influence allows the word mafis to gravitate towards a more sinister meaning. Marfud (rejected) and mahyas (aggressive boasting) added to the other implications and the overall effect is multiplied and the resemblance of baahubali-politicians in India is perfectly matched. It isn’t that baahubalis in India are not aware of their image of notoriety but despite this they have the temerity to encourage and let more glorious appellations or nicknames to remain actively in circulation. Thus, being called ‘everyone’s daddy’, ‘don of the East’, ‘king of coal’, ‘guru of rights and wrongs’, or even a ‘reformed neta’ is what makes them all continue to have a larger than life presence in the minds of those they terrify, subjugate, loot, manipulate, and control. The paradox is that in many instances their victims tend to idolize and follow their dictates without a protest. No wonder then that they still continue to strut around as ‘the other sarkar’.
In the author’s opinion, it is ‘a dramatic fall in the ethical standards that governed our political system’ that lifted the riffraff from the fringes straight into the mainstream. This disease of musclemen-politicians that had begun inching into the legislative mainstream in the sixties, became torrential during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and we have now reached a stage when despite the judiciary having taken firm steps to keep criminals out of national decision-making, the 2017 elections had 36 percent winners with criminal cases. Twenty-seven percent of these legislatures had grave criminal charges against them. The author agrees that this trend in our political system has weekend internal democracy.
The eleven profiles that feature in this book are not based on hearsay and the narratives are backed by authenticated articles already published. For instance, in the case of Pappu Yadav or ‘the reformed netaji’, every fact ranging from his love story with Ranjeeta Ranjan to his hot and cold relationship with RJD has been accessed from news reports and other published material. What is crucial to know is that in most of these instances it is invariably the ’90 percent realpolitik and 10 percent morality’ logic that makes the muscleman-politician survive and thrive. These hardened criminal with a history of crime have had a lasting effect on the politics of power. Not just this, this ugly segment in the politics of our country has shown time and again that they have the deductive intuitive intelligence to interpret the the articles and clauses in the law to suit their needs. For these manipulative beings it was always loyalty to a government that served their purpose. These are the kind who opt for options that are neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but simply because their instinct tells him it is right.
The politics of this nation began by encouraging the inclusion of baahubalis to facilitate their own need to have enough money to fight elections and win them as well. However, there is a comic instance of a JD(U) minister telling the press: ‘Those who need a baahubali for the elections are those who are short on confidence. Look at the numbers, the RJD has fielded the maximum baahubalis’ without realizing that even his party had fielded the likes of Manorama Devi and the wives of other dons. Quite obviously then, there is no getting away from this nexus in the near future and the party at the centre will need to display a strong will to clean up the political system. Until then, I would not mind reading this book again because the stories of these wily beings are mesmerizing.
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Book details:
Title: Baahubalis of Indian Politics
Author: Rajesh Singh
Publisher: Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 978-93-89967-75-3
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Arvind Passey
18 February 2021
