Is UP going the Bihar way?

Mulayam Singh Yadav, away in Lucknow, changed my life in a way he''ll never know. I am house hunting and till yesterday was actively considering buying one in Noida. Now I will not venture beyond the Delhi border on that side.
Not after Raghuraj Pratap Singh casually walked out a free man the moment the regime changed in Uttar Pradesh.
This is not a hate column against the feudal Raja Bhaiyya, as Singh is reverentially known as in UP.I do not know the worthy, am fortunate not to have met him and will be happy not to make his acquaintance ever. But his smooth release from jail as soon as the Samajwadi Party took charge in Lucknow was a fairly frightening event. Is a man sinner or saint based entirely on who the ruler is?
Mayawati had invoked the fearsome POTA against Raja Bhaiyya for political reasons. Mulayam Singh, just as easily, revoked POTA and the man is free, hugging his supporters and generally being given a hero''s welcome.
When Messrs L K Advani and co. pushed the draconian law against considerable Opposition in Parliament, they assured the country that no one could misuse it. Also that a terrorist once booked would not be able to get away easily. So who is Raja Bhaiyya? A terrorist - he was put away by Mayawati as such? Or a victim - Mulayam Singh Yadav has been crying himself hoarse?
And this is Raja Bhaiyya, not you or me, who would probably flounder for a lifetime in dark dungeons if the long arm of the law were to descend upon us with a POTA charge. A man who, despite his despotic, medieval practices mysteriously seems to have the blessings of not only a large cross-section of the political fraternity but even some of our pillars of society - like those who sat applauding everything Mulayam in Lucknow on Friday.
When Mayawati picked up the kunwar of Kunda (even the epithet sounds diabolic) and tossed him into jail, there were many ready to forgive her arrogance and intolerance if only to laud her guts. Wasn''t this the man who is reputed to have fed his pet crocodiles on uncompliant subjects? Or had people brutally punished for the sin of not genuflecting as he passed by?
Santosh Misra, who had the temerity not to allow Raja Bhaiyya''s cavalcade to overtake his humble scooter, disappeared never to be found. When Raja Bhaiyya decided to play politics, he became an MLA. And just so the machismo remained untarnished, a dozen electoral opponents cropped up, never to be seen or heard. The modern-day potentate would not suffer an uncontested win. In any case, men such as he don''t wait for election results from a certain booth. They own the booth. And the result.
This colourful character - rich from fish export, a demi-god among the Thakurs of UP and with about 25 criminal cases against him that no one honestly believed would ever cause him a sleepless night - could do nothing but play victim as Mayawati walked all over him. So powerful was the POTA weapon as long as she wielded it. The only effeminate act of this manly prince seems to have been the flinging of a slipper at Mayawati. And how he paid.
Most of us have at one time or the other scoffed at the cinematic cliche of the sickly schoolmaster being flung into the cesspool of political powerplay for some innocuous comment or deed. Those in UP, however, should stop smirking. It could happen to them if the happy cocktail of Mayawatis, Mulayam Singhs and Raja Bhaiyyas are allowed to play their games using money, power and the law.
An otherwise unremarkable bit of advertisement for a car battery on FM radio catches the ear. It takes off on all things undesirable - e.g. "not a cell-phone but cell-phoney." And, "not a UPS, but UP"! Move over Bihar, clearly UP is here.