Patna: Tejashwi Yadav’s sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government over the arrest of his former Delhi counterpart Manish Sisodia has coincided with a Delhi court summoning Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi and others in a case of ‘alleged land for job scam’ during the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief’s tenure as the railway minister (2004-09).Coincidentally, shortly after the Bihar deputy chief minister said that the “Aam Admi Party leader (Sisodia) has been arrested to divert attention from Gautam Adani”, a Delhi court has summoned Lalu, Rabri along with their daughter Misa Bharti MP (Rajya Sabha) among 15 others on March 15 in response to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) petition for the same.Also read: In CBI Reopening Corruption Case Against Lalu, Tejashwi, a Political Agenda Is Unmissable“They (the Union government) use central agencies to harass opposition leaders. The government at the Centre has been doing such things for a long time. As the date of the election draws closer, they will take more such actions against several other leaders of the opposition,” Tejashwi alleged, detailing how, in his view, the Narendra Modi government had stonewalled the entire Opposition’s demand for a probe in the wake of Hindenburg Research report on Gujarat industrialist Gautam Adani that has created ripples worldwide.Tejashwi’s remarks resonate with the perception gaining ground in sizeable sections across political parties and people in Bihar that the investigating agencies had doggedly targeted Lalu and his family particularly after he succeeded in turning the tables on the Modi-Shah era BJP in 2015.“The entire world knows that the CBI is targeting Lalu to help the Bharatiya Janata Party capture Bihar. It will never happen,” said the CPI (ML) spokesman Parvez Alam. Even the BJP leaders based in Bihar have avoided speaking on the issue.“Better you talk to our central spokespersons about the central agencies,” said a Bihar BJP spokesperson, preferring anonymity, on February 28, when AAP cadres staged a demonstration at the Patna-based BJP office after Sisodia’s arrest.Lalu targetedFacts and circumstances related to the investigating agencies’ conduct vis-à-vis Lalu Prasad after 2015 indicate a keen interest in him, and according to some, unveil how the BJP is purportedly using the CBI and the Income Tax to specifically never let attention in the case of the RJD supremo and his son Tejashwi flag.Interestingly, Tejashwi has emerged as a prime challenger of the Sangh Parivar, reminiscent of his father – at least in Bihar. The Rs 950 crore fodder scam had its roots in the 1980s in which the CBI drew in Lalu Prasad, and then his predecessor as Bihar chief minister prior to 1990, Dr Jagannath Mishra and many other leaders cutting across the party lines, including the BJP, besides senior IAS officers and suppliers of the cattle feed and fodder.Eyebrows were raised when a Ranchi-based CBI special court convicted Lalu Prasad, Jagannath Mishra and others for five years in a fodder case in 2013. They got bail in 2014 following which Lalu formed the Mahagathbandhan (grand party alliance) with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and the Congress, which inflicted a massive defeat on the BJP in state elections held in 2015, barely one-and-half years after Narendra Modi grand ride to power in Delhi in 2014.Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar in happier times. Photo: PTIAfter the setback to the BJP in 2015, the CBI was seen as being lenient on Jagannath and many others who were able to procure bail on health or other grounds but the pressure on Lalu Prasad appeared unrelenting. The CBI opened two cases related to the Railways – the allotment of IRCTC hotels in Jharkhand and Odisha to private parties and another ‘land for job in the Railways’— that the investigating agency had itself closed in 2011 after having found “no evidence”. This time around, the CBI made Tejashwi an accused. Tejashwi was deputy chief minister in the first Mahagathbandhan government in 2015 but was a fourteen-year-old cricketer at the time his father assumed office as Union Railway Minister (2004).Also read: Explainer: The Many Corruption Charges Against Lalu Prasad Yadav and His FamilyIn July 2017, the CBI as well as Income Tax officials suddenly raided Lalu Prasad’s Patna home and several other establishments and subsequently filed a charge sheet against him and his family members including Tejashwi in the IRCTC hotel case. Nitish Kumar meanwhile left the Mahagathbandhan and went back to the BJP. Curiously, the CBI fell silent on Railway-related cases as long as Nitish Kumar stayed in alliance with the BJP.Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav managed to procure bail in the Railways-related cases over the years. However, as soon as Nitish abandoned the BJP and formed the Mahagathbandhan once again in August 2022, the CBI coincidentally, petitioned the court to cancel Tejashwi’s bail, it raided Lalu’s establishments again in the Railways-related cases and also petitioned the CBI’s special court in Ranchi to raise the tenure of Lalu Prasad’s conviction so that his bail could be cancelled and he could be put behind the bars again.However, to the chagrin of the BJP and also to the advantage of the non-BJP opposition parties Nitish Kumar – who seldom questioned the investigating agencies for his entire political career till August 2022 – has changed his mind and now publicly comments on their “misuse” by the Hindutva party. “They (BJP) habitually target Lalu ji through the investigating agencies”, Nitish has repeated several times since re-joining the Grand Alliance.Subjective investigationsThere is a view that the BJP since 2014, with PM Modi and first party president and now home minister Amit Shah at the helm have a two-pronged strategy to secure electoral victory.Also read: Five Reasons Why Modi Government’s ‘Rule By Raids’ Weakens India’s DemocracyOne, closely relying on Hindutva or pushing sharp identity politics and polarisation, often ending up making the minorities feel cornered, and two, letting investigative and other central agencies suddenly focus attention on political opponents. The silence on matters concerning accusations against its own government at the centre and in the states, party leaders and favourable business houses has not gone unnoticed.Congress MPs holding banner and placards stage a protest march at Parliament House complex to express their solidarity with the party Chief Sonia Gandhi who has to appear before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the National Herald case, in New Delhi, July 21, 2022. Photo: PTI/Kamal KishoreA recent investigation by a newspaper of cases picked by the Enforcement Directorate revealed that since 2014, when the BJP assumed office in the centre, there has been a “four-fold jump in Enforcement Directorate cases against politicians; 95% are from Opposition”.The dramatic sequence of events with former CBI director Alok Verma when the latter was reportedly keen to pursue allegations in the Rafale aircraft deal, the purported silence when a section of media questioned the sudden rise of by about 16,000 times in the income of a son of a powerful minister after 2014, and now, the Prime Minister’s studied silence on charges over oligarch Gautam Adani have raised questions on if there is a rule of law the Modi government favours, or a rule by law.At this stage, it is hard to say if the arrest of its two leaders – earlier former health minister of Delhi Satyendra Jain and now former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia – will inspire AAP to forge broader unity with the Opposition against the BJP. AAP’s attacks so far on the Congress seem to ideologically mirror the Sangh Parivar’s position on issues of NRC, CAA and also Jammu and Kashmir. But the saffron party’s government’s perceived subjective and selective use of central agencies is not getting a walk-over in Bihar.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, media educator and independent researcher in social anthropology.