Patna: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ranchi on Monday handed down a five-year jail term to former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad in the fifth and biggest of the fodder scam cases involving fraudulent withdrawal of Rs1.393 billion, dealing a further blow to his political career.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 6 million on him. Prasad currently heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which is the main opposition party in Bihar.
“The CBI court has given five-year imprisonment to Lalu Prasad in the fifth fodder scam case. Now, we will move the higher court and are hopeful of getting bail since he has already completed half of the total sentencing,” Prasad’s counsel Prabhat Kumar told the media soon after the court pronounced judgment.
Kumar, who has been fighting his case for the past 25 years, strongly defended Prasad and pleaded for minor punishment, citing his advanced age and as many as 17 ailments the latter had been suffering from. Apart from Prasad’s kidney functioning only 20 per cent right now, the RJD chief has also been suffering from severe diabetes and high blood pressure. Even today, he is undergoing treatment at a government hospital under judicial custody.
This is the fifth time that he has been convicted in the fodder scam case, while one more case is pending against him in Bihar.
His conviction in the fifth case comes barely a fortnight after he expressed his willingness to return to active politics. Currently, Prasad remains disqualified for contesting elections after his sentencing in the corruption cases.
“I am keen to return to active politics. Will contest Lok Sabha polls and return to parliament. There are legal restrictions on me to contest polls but once these hurdles are removed, I will fight the elections,” Prasad told the media on February 9. The RJD chief’s younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav slammed the central investigation agencies, such as CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax, alleging they had been acting with bias. “My father always accepted the court’s judgements with humility but is this fodder scam the only scandal which took place in independent India. If these agencies have been so much alert then how did Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Mehul Choksi flee India? Where were these agencies?” asked Tejashwi while talking to the media. He alleged his father was paying the price for fighting against the communal forces.
“Laluji was never going to surrender before the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) come what may. The entire country has been watching how he is being frequently victimised by the ruling India regime,” Tejashwi said, adding they would not sit idle until the “communal forces” and its Bihar ally was politically finished.
Political analysts say the frequent sentencing of Prasad will not affect his party prospects; rather it will boost the party support base since this had conveyed a sort of “sympathy wave” in the society. “The CBI judgment was not going to impact the RJD politics in any way since Prasad has now become an institution in himself. Whether he stays in jail or remains outside, his party base is secure now,” commented prominent political analyst DM Diwakar, former director at Patna-based AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies.
According to him, Prasad has already quietly transferred the reins of his party to his younger son and the masses too have happily accepted him as their leader as was evident from the magnificent performance of the RJD in the 2020 state polls when the party emerged as the single largest party in the elections although it failed to form government by a whisker.
The judgment delivered by the courts had been entirely different from “People’s Court”, political experts say. The RJD has performed exceptionally well in most of the state and parliamentary elections even after Prasad was first made accused, then convicted and finally sentenced to various prison terms.
The first assembly elections held in Bihar after Prasad’s charge-sheet in the scandal was in 2000 and the party managed to win as many as 124 seats and was able to form its government with the help of Congress and other like-minded parties.
In the next state polls held in February-March 2005, the RJD again emerged as the single-largest party in the Bihar assembly, winning 75 seats alone although it managed to form its government in the state leading to imposition of President’s rule. In the assembly polls held in October-November 2005, the NDA finally won a majority and was able to form a government in the state. Yet the RJD too put up a good performance winning 54 seats alone. In the next 2010 assembly polls, the RJD won only 22 seats. In 2015 assembly polls, the RJD finally bounced back to power with Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Congress as its allies. However, Kumar dumped the RJD midway and formed his government with BJP’s support. In the 2020 polls, RJD again emerged as the single largest party in the state bagging 75 seats but fell short of the majority mark.
The RJD couldn’t be wiped out in parliamentary polls too despite the taint of fodder scandal on Prasad’s face. The party could be bundled out for zero only in 2019 LS polls after the emergence of Narendra Modi on the national political scene. In the LS polls held in 1998, the RJD won 17 seats, followed by seven in 1999, 22 in 2004 and four each in 2009 and 2014. In 2004, as many as seven from the RJD, including Prasad himself, became ministers in the Manmohan Singh government after UPA won a majority. The RJD had won 22 seats after contesting 26 whereas the NDA could win only 11 seats together.
