In 1991 this gentleman countermanded the election of Patna Lok Sabha constituency from where none else but I K Gujral was contesting election just on the basis of the support of the then chief minister of Mandalized Bihar. Four other constituencies met the same fate. Barh was one of them from where Nitish Kumar was contesting. Later it came out that Seshan had more score to settle with Gujral than Lalu.


Similarly, till 1997 a negligible number of people in Bihar outside bureaucracy were aware of the hierarchy in the Central Bureau of Investigation. Perhaps the only CBI official then known in the state was N K Singh of Kissa Kursi Ka fame of Emergency. He was the CBI special Director in 1970s and hailed from Bihar.

The unearthing of fodder scam in 1996, among other things, provided an opportunity to know Who’s Who in India’s premier investigating agency. Little known U N Biswas became synonym to the post of Joint Director (East) of the CBI. After his exit even the mediapersons are not aware as to who holds this post now. Poor Joginder Singh, the then Director, was hardly a conspicuous figure even then.

One way or the other both Seshan and Biswas owe much to Lalu Yadav for the post-retirement political ambition. The first named unsuccessfully tried his luck for the post of the President of India, albeit with the support of Shiv Sena. He ended up with eggs over his face. Many observers are of the view that he lost much of his name and fame by this action.

Biswas was a realistic. He joined Trinamool Congress and won the Assembly election on its ticket only to become a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet on May 20.

Biswas would not have got so much publicity had he not been entrusted the toughest job in his life––to head the investigation of Rs 950-crore fodder scam.

Never in the Indian history a serving chief minister was summoned by a Joint Director to the CBI office of Patna, just over 100 metres from his 1 Anne Marg residence for interrogation. An IPS quizzing the chief minister of the state. It continued from morning to evening. That was really a humiliating and embarrassing moments for Lalu, who otherwise tried to put up a brave front.

Months later in 1997 Lalu had to resign and was arrested. He had to go to jail four more times. He was forced to make Rabri Devi, his little-lettered wife, as the chief minister of the state. All this happened during the high time of the Third Front governments of Deve Gowda and the same I K Gujral of his own party.

Those were the darkest hours for Lalu Yadav, and in a different way, for Bihar. The state listed like a rudderless ship. He lost to Sharad Yadav in Madhepura by 32,000-odd votes in the post-Kargil 1999 parliamentary election. By 2000 the ruling RJD almost managed to survive, but with a pair of crutches provided by the Congress.

Though Lalu bounced back politically in 2004 Lok Sabha election and became the Railway Minister the fodder scam and U N Biswas (who moved up by then) kept haunting him for full 10 years before he got first relief. In December 2006 he was acquitted by the CBI court in the disproportionate asset (DA) case. That was certainly a setback to the investigating agency as Lalu got full opportunity to tell his supporters that the case was politically motivated, thus rejected by the judiciary. However, other cases are still pending.

Now Lalu, in the eyes of many political observers, has almost become irrelevant and it is the turn of Biswas to bounce back in a new avataar––as a politician. But he is possibly known more in Bihar than his own state––he certainly may be a popular name in his Assembly constituency.

With Biswas back in prominence one will get an opportunity to read more about him in the media. The otherwise low profile Buddhist may not end up interrogating any political bigwig of Bihar, but doing some other job in Writers' Building in Kolkata.

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