Tejashwi Yadav, leader of opposition in Bihar, has released a crime bulletin on his social platform X. The bulletin contains details of 87 crimes. According to Tejashwi, all the crimes took place within the last three to four days before the release date.

Interestingly, the list began with the news of the assassination of two leading Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians in Siwan and Patna respectively.

Sharing the list, Tejashwi asked the public, “Have you heard Nitish Kumar talking about the record-breaking crime, unchecked corruption and the hundreds of bodies falling and bridges collapsing every day in Bihar? Don’t you even want to listen?”

Crime Bulletins

Remarkably, this is not the first time that the leading Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party has published such a list.

A week ago, he released a list of 42 crimes, starting with the killing of a Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) leader in Bettiah. Before that, on July 29, a list of 53 crimes committed in the previous days appeared. It was the second list in July after Tejashwi released a list of 40 crimes on July 16, which in turn followed a list released in late June.

In all the X-posts, Yadav categorically blamed the BJP, Nitish Kumar and the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) ‘dual engine’ model of government.

The sincerity and regularity with which these posts appear indicate that Yadav is planning something significant on this issue.

There is no other explanation for Lalu Yadav’s expression of concern. It is widely believed that the elder Yadav prefers to give tacit support to Tejashwi on every issue. Lalu’s statement simply means that the RJD wants to revive its old voter base.

The publication of the crime stories is also significant because the drama surrounding Bihar’s special category status has subsided following the passage of this year’s Union budget.

NDA response

Given the seriousness of the allegations, the NDA should have given a befitting and considered response. However, their response can be described as cliché at best.

Raising the issue of ‘jungle raj’ within the RJD, senior BJP politician and Begusarai MP Giriraj Singh said a thief should not speak out against theft.

Nitin Naveen, president of the BJP’s Buxar unit and minister for urban development in the Bihar government, said people have not forgotten how they lived in fear between 1990 and 2005.

He added that criminals like Mohammed Shahabuddin were protected by the Yadav family as they were running the government. Moreover, Naveen RJD and the Lalu Yadav family are involved in caste-based genocide.

Prabhakar Mishra, a BJP spokesperson, took the same line. He even questioned the authenticity of Tejashwi’s list and asked him to declassify the list of crimes from 1990 to 2005.

Jama Khan, leader of the JD(U) and minister for minorities affairs in the Bihar government, said Tejashwi could not do anything except sit at home and use his mobile phone.

Although these counterpoints are factually based, they are slowly losing ground.

The issue of jungle raj has been at the centre of the NDA’s attacks on the RJD since 2005. In every election, even recently in the 2024 general elections, the NDA reminded people that a vote for the RJD would mean the return of the jungle raj.

Young Bihar

This line of attack has worked in the past because most people of voting age have either seen this raj directly or heard stories about it from someone close to them.

But things are changing fast and sharply. Bihar is young! Even in 2036, the average age of the population in the state will not exceed 30 years.

This means that most Biharis of voting age were not even born during the Jungle Raj. They have no first-hand experience of the system in which state power was controlled by hooligans. This means that more and more voters are not comfortable with the NDA’s appeal to the Jungle Raj.

The relative success of the Indian National Democratic Inclusive (INDI) Alliance in the 2024 general elections under Tejashwi’s leadership is likely to serve as a warning shot for the NDA.

A large section of Bihar’s youth, most of them under 25, also agreed with Yadav’s commitment to job creation.

Moreover, the digital media consumed by youth is full of shows that glorify and exalt the villains of the Jungle Raj era in Bihar politics. The portrayal of strongman Shahabuddin and the chief ministership of Rabri Devi in ​​the online space is nowhere near the reality. The youth are influenced by these shows, including the many YouTube videos that the bloody jungle raj.

Tejashwi’s yatras are making things even more difficult for the NDA. During his lastJan Vishwas YatraIn the run-up to this year’s Lok Sabha elections, he repeatedly campaigned against Nitish Kumar on job creation.

Now that he has another yatraIt is no exaggeration to say that Tejashwi’s crime bulletin will try to undo the damage caused by the NDA’s regular reminders of jungle rule.

Tejashwi’s long-term aim is probably to change the situation by making it clear that the NDA has fared worse than the RJD.

One might even expect him to create a decentralized database and inform the families of the victims during his yatra in every district. This idea comes from the playbook of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he used the names of abducted children in his election rallies during the jungle rule.

The NDA may now have to come up with a good response. It has to start taking control of the narrative and the best way to do that is to fight crime. That will be the most effective way to thwart Tejashwi Yadav’s strategy.