Criminal-turned-legislator Anant Singh abducted NDTV reporter for 2 hours on Thursday morning when the reporter went at his residence to ask about the mysterious death of Reshma Khatoon. Anant Singh, a ruling party MLA in Bihar, abused and thrashed the reporter at his residence and his supporters attacked other mediapersons who reached at Anant’s residence as they heard the news of report’s abduction.
When mediapersons started agitating against the JDU MLA and demanded for his arresting, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar ordered the Police to arrest him and told the media that he would send the recommendation letter to center to initiate CBI enquiry against Anant Singh in murder of Reshma Khatoon. Police arrested Anant Singh and the court send him to 14-day judicial custody and Anant Singh finally sent to Beur Jail on Thursday evening.
In the middle of whole drama, the opposition party got the golden opportunity to target Nitish Kumar and the Rashtriya Janta dal called for Bihar bandh on Friday in the protest against the attack on media people in Patna. Congress, LJP, CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, BSP, Samajwadi Party, NCP and Samata Party supported theRJD-sponsored bandh.
Rabri Devi later claimed that the bandh was total and demanded resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and death penalty for Anant Singh. According to official sources, nearly 1584 people were detained during the bandh.
Now, the major question is that Media should deal the matter very carefully because the opposition parties have started taking advantage of media outrage against Anant Singh. The root of the problem is not Anant Singh and the JDU government is not the sole culprit. Governments in Bihar have been infamous for not taking any strong action against criminals-turned-MLAs or former MLAs MPs since long even if they have number of public complaints registered against them.
Lalu’s 15-year rule was predominantly infamous for that the RJD government had actually started the trend to send the criminals in legislative assembly and parliament just to secure a seat to increase its number in house. One would forget the counting if starts counting the number of criminal-turned politician in Bihar. They all enjoyed power in Lalu’s rule.
Anant Singh, himself was once RJD’s strongman. Suggestion to media…Targeting Nitish Kumar after once again becoming the tools in the hand of parties like RJD would not give any solution to the problem in Bihar. This is the time, when we should ask all the political parties across the countries just to keep these criminal elements away from legislature and late them taste the rule of law in real.
According to the BJP state President Radha Mohan Singh, more than 100 incidents of violence against journalists took place during the 15 years of RJD rule but the RJD government never acted against the culprits. He alleged that former Resident Editor of The Times of India, Uttam Sengupta was fired upon and its News Editor N R Mohanty was beaten up by a RJD minister in Patna and two journalists were killed at Hazaribagh in undivided Bihar, but no action was taken.
Nitish Kumar promptly reacted and accepted the CBI enquiry in the case. Anant Singh was sent to 14-day judicial custody and he arrived in Beur jail by the Thursday evening. Nitish Kumar has to lead the system that is already in horrible condition. How can people forget the horrible gundaraj of RJD leaders in Patna and other cities in Bihar? How can anyone forget RJD MP Shahabuddin parallel government in Siwan?
Attack on media person is nothing different than attack on any common man in the democracy. No democratic country can give anyone power to assault any common man. The rule of law should be established and the law enforcing agencies should do their job honestly.
At the same time, media should not become tool in the hands of any political parties to target another one. We should condemn the attack and should pressurize the government to punish the culprit according to the law. We should raise our voice against all the criminal elements present in all the parties.
Anant Singh alone is not the problem because there are so many Anant Singhs are already there in other political parties across the country as well. We should hit hard on the roots of the problem by targeting all such elements in each and every party to end the criminalization of politics through the power of freedom of press… This will be the best mission to serve the country at most.
