Madhya Pradesh CM's reign begs the question: Shiv-raj or jungle raj?

In India’s political discourses, “jungle raj” doesn’t conjure up image of Madhya Pradesh; the egregious phase has more often been used for the rampant lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. But the Supreme Court was anguished enough to use the phrase on March 14 for Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, as the two judges --- justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and MR Shah,-- discovered to their shock that the state’s police failed to arrest an accused in the two-year-old murder of Congress leader Devendra Chourasiya.

The accused, Govind Singh, the husband of BSP MLA Rambai Prajapati, is absconding despite the arrest warrant being issued against him. What the judges found even more galling was that the additional sessions judge (ASJ) of Damoh district, who ordered the arrest in February his year, was compelled to write to the apex court seeking safety for his life, alleging that the district Superintendent of Police had threatened him to implicate in false cases.

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“This is jungle raj”, observed the Justices while ordering the MP Director General of Police Vivek Johri to immediately ensure the arrest of Govind Singh.

“If you cannot make the arrest, admit that you have failed to conduct the administration as per the Constitution,” Justice Shah said.

The police’s failure to nab Singh is a sordid reflection of survival politics that has dogged the state since the Congress had come to power in the 2018 Assembly Election with a fractured mandate.

Govind Singh was named prime accused by the son of Devendra Chourasiya, who was murdered in February 2019. But the then Kamal Nath government dillydallied on his arrest as his MLA wife Rambai’s support was considered crucial to cobble together a majority. The Kamal Nath government fell nonetheless, paving way for the BJP to return with rebel Jyotiraditya Sindia’s support.

Unlike his predecessor, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan didn’t need outside support as the BJP already had enough MLAs to feel safe. The ruling party added a dozen more MLAs to its tally in the by-elections for 22 seats in the November last year, further fortifying its stability.

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Yet, the Shivraj Singh government risked public opprobrium and court’s wrath to brazenly protect an absconding murder-accused in the hope that his wife’s support might be needed in future.

As the BJP is set to celebrate the first anniversary of its snatching of power from the Congress on March 22, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan doesn’t seem confident on the seat. Unlike his previous terms, when he had ruled with moral authority, having led the party to victory in successive elections since 2008, Shivraj Singh is no longer as sure-footed as in the past. His style of functioning has remarkably changed, so also his language. He hadn't previously uttered phrases such as “I will bury you 10-feet deep" that he used recently while warning land mafias. This is just one example of many such foul utterances.

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In the first 13 years of uninterrupted rule since 2005, Shivraj was regarded as a moderate and polite leader, as inheritor of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s political legacy in the party.

However, in his fourth term, Shivraj reminds one of UP CM Yogi Aditya Nath more than Atal Behari Vajpayee. The change in his disposition struck first time a month after he assumed office.

The Covid-19 pandemic had begun to spread in the state. In April, a sizeable number of Tablighia members had fled from their congregation in Hazrat Nizammuddin to their respective homes in Madhya Pradesh. Without any empirical basis, the chief minister blamed the Jamaat as a super spreader of the pandemic. His remark deepened hatred in the Hindu community towards Muslims at large and, in many places in the Malwa region, led to attacks on the minority community members. Several Muslim youth were interned under the NSA on the charge of attacking medical teams. On the other hand, saffron activists were allowed to undertake religious functions such as Kalash Yatra in public in utter disdain to the protocol imposed by the district administrations. The BJP exploited the aroused religious fervour amid the pandemic to channelise with its election campaign for the 22 by-elections that had been necessitated due to resignations of Jyotiraditya Scindia supporters who had switched to the ruling party.

The BJP’s spectacular victory in the by-elections further emboldened the BJP and the Hindutva forces alike to veer the Shivraj Singh government towards more aggressive posturing. A month after the by-elections, hooligans owing allegiance to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) took out bicycle rallies in the Malwa region in the name of collecting donations for Ram temple in Ayodhya. The saffron hoodlums specifically targeted Muslim areas in Mandsaur, Indore and Ujjain and vandalised homes and Mosques.

The government acted swiftly—not to arrest the culprits but the victims .Several Muslim houses were razed to ground on the district administration’s order. The chief minister announced a harsh law to deal with ‘stone pelters” from the Muslim community, holding them squarely responsible for the communal flare-ups in the Malwa region in December last year. To keep the momentum against the Muslims a law to deal with so –called Love Jihad was announced. It was finally passed by the state assembly in March with provision of jail term up to 10 years for the guilty. In January, a stand-up comedian Munavvar Faruqui was jailed on the complaint of a BJP MLA’s son on the suspicion that the artiste might crack some jokes to insult the Hindu gods and goddesses. It took 45 days and the Supreme Court’s intervention to grant bail to Faruqui for the crime he had not committed. The apex court severely censured the state government for its bias in the case.