In a bizarre turn of events the Patna police arrested Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) president Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on Tuesday morning allegedly for flouting lockdown rules. He was taken to the state capital’s Gandhi Maidan police station where further investigation is underway.
However latest report suggests that he has been arrested on the charge of his involvement in 32-year-old abduction case in Madhepura.
A few days back, Pappu Yadav exposed the presence of 39 ambulances lying on the premises of Chapra BJP MP Rajeev Pratap Rudy’s office. This has triggered a huge uproar against the MP. The BJP MP was widely criticised for keeping such a large number of ambulances on standby, when patients and bodies are even being carried on carts and bicycles.
The Chapra MP has clarified that the ambulances were lying due to unavailability of drivers. In a further embarrassment to the MP, Pappu Yadav had claimed in a press conference that he will provide the drivers if demanded. He even presented many of the drivers before the media.
Over the years, Pappu Yadav has emerged as one of the most popular leaders of the state especially because of his humanitarian assistance at the time of crisis. It is another matter that he has of late failed to capitalize this goodwill for electoral gain. He lost the 2019 general election from Madhepura Lok Sabha seat. However, it could not dampen his spirit of public service.
Since the onset of the second corona wave in Bihar, Pappu Yadav has been providing all sorts of help to the common people: From securing beds to arranging oxygen and medicine to providing food. He has been consistently visiting hospitals and cremation centers to take stock of the situation.
During last year’s lockdown too, he helped a large number of needy people including migrant labourers with food packets and monetary assistance. His heroic role during the 2019 prolonged water-logging in Patna was widely appreciated by the people of Bihar as well as regional and national media.
Reacting to the arrest of Pappu Yadav, former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi strongly criticised the Bihar government. HAM is a constituent of the ruling NDA and Manjhi’s son is a minister.
Jitan Ram Manjhi tweeted that if a public representative is helping people round the clock and he is being arrested for doing this, it is a dangerous precedent for humanity. There must be a judicial probe before any action in such cases or else public anger cannot be ruled out, he affirmed.
On the other hand, opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal also questioned the arrest of the JAP leader. RJD spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari alleged that the state government tries to muzzle the critical voices by such actions. He said that last year when opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav went to help the people, he was slapped with half a dozen cases. Similarly, whoever shows mirror to the government for its failure is being arrested or slapped with FIRs.
CPI ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya asked the government whether it is taking revenge with Pappu for exposing the Bihar Ambulance Scam. He tweeted: “Heard from Bihar about Pappu Yadav arrest. He had exposed the Bihar Ambulance Scam, ambulances bought with MPLAD funds being misused by BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Is the government taking revenge? Is this how Nitish Kumar wants to fight Covid-19”.
Meanwhile, social media is flooded with posts supporting Pappu Yadav. Release Pappu Yadav is trending on Twitter.
(Shams Khan is contributing editor at TheNewsWeb. He is based in Patna.)
