Siwan is a district in Bihar where a criminal had a very strong political hold from 1990 to 2009. Mohammad Shahabuddin died in 2021 because of covid related complications. But the fear he induced in the minds of people was so much that the people who lived through it will never forget. Under Lalu Prasad Yadav’s patronage he ruled Siwan for three decades. Not just ruled, but created a whole new record in crimes such as murder, extortion and kidnapping which had become an industry in itself.
Mohammad Shahabuddin first became an MLA in 1990 as an independent candidate from Ziradei constituency. In 1995, he contested elections as Janata Dal candidate and won. A year later he became an MP from Siwan. He registered a win from this seat in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. If you think people elected him to power for six times nonstop out of their love for him, you are highly mistaken.
Mohammad Shahabuddin is one of those criminals from Bihar who started their criminal career in the 80s decade. In the poor state of Bihar, some government schemes had started coming. Hence, they would take out tenders for the schemes. Hence, the criminals in the 80s started becoming contractors and to whitewash their crimes, they wore white clothes and became politicians. Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was fondly called ‘Bahubali’ in the media and ‘sahab’ by his supporters, was one such criminal.
Six-episode Zee5 series Rangraaz is based on his life. In the series, not only is the character of Mohammad Shahabuddin (fictionalised as Harul Shah Ali) praised to the moon, but also painted Chanda Babu’s character as a corrupt villain. In reality, Shahabuddin got Chanda Babu’s three sons brutally murdered by pouring acid over them. Not just that, Zee5’s Rangraaz also fits into the leftist narrative of ‘Hindu goons’. Towards the climax, taking a detour from reality, Shahabuddin is portrayed as a larger than life people’s leader. They have also tried to justify his criminal activities by giving a context to his crimes.
Glorifying lives of criminals on the big screen is not new for Bollywood. Underworld don and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has also been portrayed as a hero in many films. Don Haji Mastan has also been shown as a messiah in many films. Dawood’s don sister was also glorified on the silver screen. In ‘Raees’, Shah Rukh Khan played role inspired from don Abdul Lafeef who was shown as ‘god’ for people in the locality. There are many such examples. ‘Rangbaaz: Darr Ki Rajneeti’ is just one more in the long list.
Communal riots would mean Hindus goons are traumatising Muslims while Muslims are victims
In the series, it is shown that Mohammad Shahabuddin was caught in a communal riot in his childhood. In Bollywood, the meaning of communal riots is that Hindu goons are chasing Muslim, who are the victims. Hindu goons are portrayed as Bhagwadhari goons baying for blood of Muslim women and children.
In this web series, it is shown that when the child Shahabuddin is returning from school with his Hindu friend, then some Hindu goons are rioting in a Muslim dominated area. Then they start chasing these kids but the mother of the Hindu kid hides them and saves them. And while in reality as seen in 2020 Delhi riots, where Hindu shops were targeted and and burnt down by mobs, in this web series, Shahabuddin’s father’s shop was burnt down by a Hindu mob. Moreover, then the police is shown to be making fun of Muslims. It is shown like Hindus have massacred Muslims, so as to create a backdrop.
Now, after being victim of such atrocities, how can Shahabuddin not end up as a criminal? This is how the web series has justified and then glorified the life of a criminal. This is the narrative. In one scene it is shown that when like his brother, when Shahabuddin is asked to go out and find a job or start his business like his brother, he asks his father ‘what if someone sets my shop on fire’? This is why he then chooses life of a criminal. This looks very juvenile when seen on television but the narrative is to make it appear like Muslims take to criminal life because of Hindus. And this is not new as we have seen such a storyline earlier in Hindi movies too.
Zameendars first gave patronage to Shahabuddin and then the gangster joined politics to defeat them
This web series then increases our general knowledge by explaining how only those who belonged to families of zameendar, or land owners, became a politician. Do Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Ramvilas Paswan or Sushil Modi have any links to family of zameendars? No. Were Bihar’s first chief minister Dr Shrikrishna Sinha or deputy chief minister Anugrah Narayan Sinha carry out atrocities on Dalits? No. Under the garb of ‘evil zameendars’, the series tries to portray upper caste Hindus, rather the entire Hindu community, as villain.
Remember how we were taught the Moplah massacre of Hindus in Kerala and the Khilafat (Caliphate) movement was taught to us as protest against the British by the farmers in our school books? We were taught how farmers took to protest because they were tired of the atrocities of the ‘evil zameendars’ while in reality it was a jihad to establish an Islamic caliphate, that too against Hindus. Similarly, in this web series too there is one character ‘Dashrath Singh’ who plays the role of an ‘evil zameendar’. It is shown that it is Dashrath Singh who takes Shahabuddin into the world of crime and gets him to take care of his land.
This is where we learn second reason why Shahabuddin took to crime. First it was the Hindu goons rioting and second is the zameendari. When Shahabuddin seeks permission from Dashrath Singh to contest elections, the latter makes fun of him, humiliates him and then Shahabuddin defeats Singh himself.
Now, let me tell you the inspiration behind the character of Dashrath Singh. Tribhuvan Narayan Singh, sorry, Captain Tribhuvan Narayan Singh, one of the most respected persons from Siwan. In 1985 he became an MLA on Congress ticket. He passed away in May 2022 at the age of 80. He was not only an Army veteran but also fought in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Even today everyone remembers his contribution in the field of education and healthcare.
Singh played an important role in laying the foundation of the Hari Ram College in Siwan. He also worked as chief medical officer at Rajendra Sevashram hospital. He worked tirelessly for establishing hospitals in Korwa and Noutan areas of Mairwa. He had opposed Shahabuddin’s entry into politics and refused to endorse him. After that, Shahabuddin became all the more determined to join politics and in 1990, he crossed all boundaries of criminal behaviour and defeated Captain Tribhuvan Narayan Singh. A person like Captain Singh is shown as someone who supports and nurtures criminals.
Extortion = ‘Protection’ if the perpetrator is a Muslim
In this web series it is shown that Shahabuddin and his goons do not go to businessmen to threaten them and extort them. Instead, they come to Shahabuddin and offer ‘protection money’ and request him to ‘protect’ them. Hence, ‘ransom’ becomes ‘protection’ when the one collecting it is Muslim. Siwan’s businessmen keep picture of their ‘sahab’, not out of fear but out of love. There is no fear of him in the business community, everyone ‘loves’ him.
However, in reality, if anyone would keep photo or poster of any opposition candidate in their shop in Siwan, Shahabuddin will make their lives hell. 2004 Lok Sabha elections he contested and won from inside the jail. While in jail, he had arranged for his stay to be in the hospital. An entire floor was booked for him where he would hold his political meetings. he won the elections and after that many JDU workers were murdered. Because JDU’s Om Prakash Yadav was his very strong opponent.
In 1997, when RJD had total control over Bihar, Shahabuddin had become a parallel law and order system. Even police officers would be terrified of him. So you can imagine what the businessmen and shopowners thought of him. If people loved Shahabuddin so much, his wife, Hina Shahab would not lose three consecutive Lok Sabha elections in 2009, 2014 and 2019. People did not love, but feared Shahabuddin who had embraced the life of a criminal from his college days itself.
‘Chanda Babu’ is made out to be a villain, an old, harassed man is shown to be ‘obstacle’ in development
If you were to believe what the makers of Rangbaaz: Darr Ki Rajneeti’ on Zee5, one would think that Chanda Babu was against development. As per serial, the character based on Chanda Babu’s life does not give away his shop even at double the value for construction of a world class hospital even when everyone else had agreed to give up their land. It is shown that his sons had attacked Shahabuddin’s men with acid and hence he drenched two sons in acid and killed them. They didn’t show that after killing them Shahabuddin cut their bodies into pieces and threw them away.
After that, when the third son comes to give a statement as witness, he is also killed. In the series it is shown that Chanda Babu himself goes to jail to apologise to Shahabuddin and kills him. In reality, Chandrakeshwar Prasad aka Chanda Babu died in December 2020 after a heart attack. The man who cremated his three young sons died without getting justice for them. But this man is then shown in the series as someone who created troubles for development of Siwan.
The truth, however, is that Shahabuddin’s goons had looted Rs 2.5 lakh from Chanda Babu’s shop. His son Satish had agreed to give Rs 40,000 but Shahabuddin’s goons started beating him up. To save Satish, his brother Rajiv threw a bottle of acid kept in the bathroom towards the goons, of which some droplets fell on them. Then, on Shahabuddin’s instructions, Satish and his other brother Girish were drenched in acid and their brother Rajiv was made to watch it. Then their bodies were chopped into pieces and filled in sacks with salt and thrown away.
Then, after looting Chanda Babu’s shop, they set it on fire. Remember how in the web series, it is shown how Shahabuddin, in his childhood, had seen his shop being set on fire. Chanda Babu went from Siwan to Patna to Delhi to seek justice for his sons, but got nothing. When his third son came to give testimony, even he was killed. Chanda Babu and his wife Kalavati did not lose hope even then. They continued to fight. Chanda Babu would say, ‘either God should take us away or Shahabuddin should.’
‘Leader’, not a criminal Shahabuddin: Would talk about women rights and empowerment
You might have seen instances where if a criminal is Muslim he is termed mentally deranged. The culprits who attacked Gorakhpur temples were called mentally unstable. His family members said how he did not know what he was doing. While in case of Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder we had seen how even family members are part of jihad. But in films, family members of Muslim criminals are almost always shown to have very high standard of morals. They show how Shahabuddin’s father did not talk to him, hated crime and did not live in the house constructed by him. And neither did he use any of the things Shahabuddin bought for him.
Shahabuddin’s wife is shown as someone who discourages him from taking up criminal path, would scold him for his crimes. However, the truth is that his entire family was involved in criminal activity.
In one MLC elections, opposition leader Raees Khan was attacked with AK 47. In this case, Shahabuddin’s son Osama was named prime accused. This incident is very recent, from April this year, just one month prior to Shahabuddin’s death. Heena Shahab, RJD leader, cried foul over the FIR and threatened to leave Siwan. In real life, his wife has always whitewashed the crimes of Shahabuddin.
In the web series, Shahabuddin is a man who wants development. In jail, one constable tells him how his daughter is studying in the college constructed by Shahabuddin. Shahabuddin tells his wife how he gave a speech on women empowerment in the Parliament. He then explains how to talk about these issues he would have to go to the Parliament, as an elected member and to become one he has to do ‘these activities’ (criminal activities).
In the series, Leftist leader Chandrashekhar is shown as Shahabuddin’s childhood friend. When in reality the two never studied together and were not even friends. In fact, Shahabuddin got Chandrashekhar killed.
Pratappur clashes is also depicted as ‘self defence’. While in reality, Shahabuddin had beaten up an SP and his goons had beaten up other police officers. After that, police teams from various police stations reached his house. In this violence, 13 people were killed. An Army team was also deployed in Siwan to keep an eye on Shahabuddin who had connections with the ISI, Pakistan and underworld. And after the clashes, Lalu Prasad Yadav had referred to police action as cruel and sided with Shahabuddin.
And now, that Shahabuddin is glorified on television screen and his crimes whitewashed and he is portrayed as some messiah who has been a victim of the system.
Article originally published on Hindi website. You can read it here.
