Patna, March 26
Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, the RJD supremo and ‘de facto’ ruler of Bihar, did the balancing act on Siwan issue today. He, as expected, stole the show. Laloo Yadav, while visiting the Pratappur village of the controversial RJD MP of Siwan, Mohammed Shahabuddin, apparently to appease the minority community ministers and MLAs of his party, today said that the MP was his younger brother. As against the government stand on the Siwan issue, the RJD chief tip-towed his party line that the team of ministers had taken on March 17 and admitted that the police had committed excesses and the killed were not criminals, as the police claimed but innocent persons.

As against the popular perception and the hope of the dissidents, Laloo did not face any protest and slogan-shouting at the village. He visited the family members of the MP and also other victims’ kin. He was accompanied by Welfare Minister Ezazul Haque (his resignation still not accepted) and Road Construction Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui. Laloo’s visit to the MP’s village is seen as a step ahead in wooing the minority vote and putting a halt on the dissidence brewing in his party over the U-turn the government took on the Siwan issue. Laloo Yadav did manage the game well on Monday.

It was expected that Laloo would play the ‘messiah’ at Paratapur. He consoled the relatives of the MP and urged the villagers not to destroy the evidences in the village so that the probe team could itself see the police excesses. He said many of those killed had valid passports as they had come in the vacations from Saudi Arabia and Dubai. He flayed the police action on the villagers and assured the villagers that the guilty would not be spared.

SIWAN (PTI): Bihar Minister of State for Welfare Ejazul Haq, who had quit resenting the government’s handling of the Siwan violence involving RJD MP Shahabuddin, withdrew his resignation today after several rounds of talks with Chief Minister Rabri Devi and RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav.

“I have withdrawn my resignation. There was some confusion between us which has now been sorted out ... The government has conceded most of my demands, “ Mr Haq told reporters here.

Despite Ms Rabri Devi rejecting his resignation on Saturday, Mr Haq had stuck to his demand for suspending the policemen, including the SP (now transferred), Mr B.S. Meena, alleged to have been involved in the violence at Pratappur in Siwan district on March 16 in which 11 persons, including two policemen, were killed.

The minister, a relative of Mr Shahabuddin, had also demanded that the arrests of the MP’s supporters be stopped pending conclusion of the judicial inquiry instituted by the government into the incident.