Raja Bhaiya in UP Cabinet. Is Akhilesh's promise a hoax?

Will the feudal lords, kangaroo judges, reign of fear, illegal weapon power and utter lawlessness take over Uttar Pradesh again? This thought must have come to everyone who witnessed the induction of Kunwar Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias alias Raja Bhaiya as Cabinet minister in Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s team today. The 1969-year born Raja Bhaiya is a fifth time independent winner from Kunda Assembly seat and faced a host of criminal cases against him — from robbery to terrorism charges. In the earlier part of his political career, Raja Bhaiya was close to the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly Kalyan Singh. However, with time his proximity to Mulayam Singh Yadav grew and he was even made a minister in Yadav’s government. The list of crimes that the dreaded Raja Bhaiya has against him is long enough. In his affidavit filed with Election Commission before this year’s Assembly polls, he had eight declared criminal cases, including attempt to murder, dacoity and abduction, against him. The prominent one in his recent affidavit are the cases against him under the Uttar Pradesh Gangster Act.[caption id=“attachment_245676” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh greets Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav after taking oath as a Cabinet minister at the swearing-in ceremony in Lucknow on Thursday. PTI “]  [/caption] When Akhilesh was questioned today about the hypocrisy between promising a goonda-free tenure and inducting Raja Bhaiya as a Cabinet minister, the state’s youngest chief minister was quick to defend his decision in cliched political style. “You know that who slapped maximum cases against Raja Bhaiyya and if you ask with dates you will come to know in which dates these cases were slapped,” Akhilesh told reporters today affter his swearing-in in Lucknow. “Wasn’t he jailed by the old government,” he said, in an obvious reference to Mayawati’s tenure, a PTI report said. Raja Bhaiya was last arrested on 20 December 2010 for attacking a BSP candidate during a local election. Samajwadi supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav then openly warned the officials—the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police—carrying out the arrests with dire consequences. Raja Bhiya was also arrested in 2002 during Mayawati’s regime and booked under POTA. This case had lodged the Kunda MLA for 18 months in jail. It is no wonder that people fear their ‘Bhaiya’. In 1997, an Outlook magazine described him aptly: “HE is the archetypal Chhote Thakur, straight out of a Mumbaiya Hindi potboiler. He holds court in his courtyard and delivers instant justice—slaps jurmaana (fine) on ’erring subjects’ or orders a ‘sound’ thrashing. His subjects, poor men, women and children, touch his feet with their foreheads, pleading for mercy. Outside his fortressed Bainti Estate, people queue up every morning to offer salutations, their bodies bent at 90 degrees, hands raised in a namaste above their heads.” If Raja Bhaiya’s maintains this comic book image for the next five years, then there is a serious question mark on Akhilesh’s assurances of peace and prosperity. Bhayam or sukham?