The Raja’s Bhaigiri

Five years in political wilderness during the Mayawati regime had nearly washed out Raghuraj Pratap Singh, or Raja Bhaiyya, whose name spells terror in Kunda, his fiefdom and political constituency. But no sooner than the Samajwadi Party returned to power in March 2012, he was back as a minister. However, controversy, to which he is no stranger, has come to dog him barely a year on. The killing of DySP Zia-ul-Haque in Raja Bhaiyya’s constituency has led to his resignation as minister, and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has been constrained to offer to call for a CBI inquiry. This, despite Raja Bhaiyya being a blue-eyed boy of Akhilesh’s father, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Strangely, the DySP’s killing has both angered people and provoked reactionary support for Raja Bhaiyya (around Kunda, of course). When the CM airdashed to the slain officer’s home in Deoria, in eastern UP, the slogan raised was, “Raja Bhaiyya murdabad!” But during a visit to Belapur village, Pratapgarh district, where the 32-year-old officer was killed, Akhilesh was met with slogans of “Raja Bhaiyya zindabad!” and the feudal lord’s supporters called the whole affair a “political conspiracy”. The March 2 violence in which the officer was killed was sparked by the murder of Nanhe Yadav, a village pradhan who was Raja Bhaiyya’s protege, and his brother Suresh Yadav.

It’s hard to say if the slogans in Raja Bhaiyya’s  support were the outcome of admiration or fear. For the Raja of Kunda—whom ex-BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh once called “Kunda ka goonda”, but later made a minister to save his crumbling government—still runs a riyasat, holding durbars and settling disputes. The DySP never attended them, unlike many government officials. Indeed, opposition leaders, too, seem to be in awe of Raja Bhaiyya: despite the murder, neither Swami Prasad Maurya of the BSP, CLP leader Pramod Tiwari nor the BJP’s Hukum Singh has spoken out against him. Maurya, in fact, said in the assembly that “never in my life have I said a word against” Raja Bhaiyya. Strange, coming from a leader of the only party that acted against him, raided his estates and took away the pond in which he was reputed to have man-eating crocodiles. (The Samajwadi Party government restored it to him, and Mayawati herself had made him a minister during her second stint.) Political leaders of all hues say it’s “most unlikely” that Raja Bhaiyya, despite his goonish track record, was involved in the DySP’s killing. And Raja Bhaiyya himself says he wants a CBI inquiry as much as the slain DySP’s wife does.

“I had no grudge against him,” Raja Bhaiyya told Outlook. “Besides, my name was not there in the first FIR. It was included in the second one, filed the next day. What does this mean? While the killing was unfortunate, I’m afraid the real culprits will never be brought to book, for the FIR names people who were not present in the village when the incident happened.”

Of his durbars, he says there’s nothing wrong in resolving disputes that would otherwise take years in court and cost lakhs of rupees. He says people readily accept his verdict out of “love, respect and affection”. “If there were any fear, they’d have stopped coming to me.”

As a recommendation is being completed to transfer the probe into the DySP’s killing to the CBI, the stage is set for another tussle for Raja Bhaiyya, something he is used to. In the past, he has been charged under anti-terror and anti-gangster laws, and with kidnapping and murder. He is unique in that he has gone to prison and also been prisons minister. What does he think of the controversies that always seem to surround him? “Perhaps there’s something wrong in my kundali,” he says. “No wonder I’m always in controversy.”