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Assassination of Phoolan Devi : Impact on UP poll |
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In her death, as in her real life, former Bandit queen and MP Phoolan Devi created a storm. Shot at point-blank right outside the gates of her house in Delhi’s VVIP area, Phoolan died before she could be taken to hospital. Even before the body could be cremated, the Samajwadi Party which brought her into the political arena, took control of the situation. Senior leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and his close aide Amar Singh were quick to see a political angle to the gunning down of the reformed dacoit, who had spent over 10 years behind bars for various crimes during her eventful life in the Chambal ravines. There was lot of pressure on the police to nab the killers quickly, who had attacked around mid-day and escaped right under the nose of the hundreds of cops stationed in the area. In less than 48 hours, the main accused, the driver of the car, who had driven the MP to Parliament in the morning was in custody. The suspect, called Pankaj, whose real name was Sher Singh Rana, surfaced under dramatic circumstances in Dehra Dun and voluntarily surrendered to the police. But his statement that he had shot Phoolan as a revenge for the Behmai massacre of the upper caste Thakurs by the bandit and her gang over 20 years back was not convincing. His version of the sequence of events seemed too perfect that even the police had doubts, just like the media. The hidden hand of some influential persons with political connections was seen in the brutal killing. It defied logic that a killer would leave the weapon of offence in the getaway car before abandoning the vehicle. The role of Phoolan’s husband, Umed Singh, who now inherits her assets and some visitors to her house on the fateful day,has not been established beyond doubt.
The Samajwadi party, with its sights set on the UP assembly elections, made big political capital out of the killing. It rejected the appeal of Phoolan’s mother to hold the cremation in Delhi. The body was finally taken with lot of fanfare to Mirzapur, the constituency that elected her. The SP called for a UP bandh in protest and virtually accused the UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh of being part of the conspiracy to eliminate Phoolan Devi. The fact that the official Delhi residence of Rajnath Singh was very near to that of Phoolan and that the security guards did not come to help even though the gunshots could be heard, was cited as “suspicious”. But once the main suspect was in custody, the SP toned down its charges. Phoolan was important to the SP as being an exploited woman from the backward caste, she was an important vote catcher. The SP’s bid to exploit the killing of Phoolan was governed by the fact that in recent weeks, the UP Chief Minister had initiated steps to woo the dalits and the backward classes by sops in the form of reservations. Rajnath Singh had been trying to widen the BJP’s political base by his measures. The SP, as the main contender for power in UP, had been looking for a chance to hit back. Thus Phoolan’s murder came in handy for Mulayam Singh Yadav. Ironically, even in her death by bullets, Phoolan retained her celebrity status.
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