Two mega scams in Bihar – the Rs 950-crore fodder scam during the tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Rs 22,000-crore Shrijan scam during the time of Nitish Kumar – are a testament to how Bharatiya Janata Party has used the Central Bureau of Investigation to its political advantage.The CBI court convicted Lalu among 74 others on the charge of “conspiracy” in “fraudulent withdrawls” of Rs 139.50 crores from the Doranda (Ranchi) treasury on February 15. It was the fifth and last case of the fodder scam in which the court pronounced its verdict.The court had begun pronouncing verdicts in the fodder scam cases in 2013. Lalu, another former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, Congress leader Jagdish Sharma, IAS officer K. Arumugham, Bihar animal husbandry department’s regional director Shyam Bihari Sinha were among hundreds cutting across party lines, who were charged and convicted in connection with the scam. Sharma, Arumugham and Sinha have passed away.Nitish Kumar too figured as a “beneficiary” in the CBI’s initial records with the accused suppliers naming him in cases. Be it his effort to maintain a clean image or as suitable political strategy, Nitish broke ranks with Lalu in the mid 1990s when some Ranchi-based newspapers began publishing stories about the alleged misappropriation of funds. He then aligned with the BJP. The court pursued the matter for several dates but the CBI allegedly failed to procure evidence to substantiate the charge against Nitish.Also read | Explained: What Is the Fodder Scam, In Which Lalu Prasad Yadav Has Been Convicted?Once Nitish’s Samata Party (as it was known then) joined ranks with the BJP, the leaders of both the parties – especially Lallan Singh of the Samata Party, and Sushil Kumar Modi and Saryu Rai of the BJP – began pursuing the fodder scam with the CBI and the court.Moreover, the RSS-BJP’s cadres used the scam to single out Lalu and paint him as the lone symbol of corruption, loot and anarchy. The urban middle class and ‘upper’ castes which were inimical to Lalu because of his strident fight for the backward classes and marginalised sections and forceful implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations lapped up this ‘anarchist’ image of Lalu being fed by the RSS-BJP.This is not to suggest that Lalu is unblemished. However, the RSS-BJP used this scam to build a narrative around him that suited its politics and spared the ones who joined its ranks. Similarities There are striking similarities in the natures of the fodder scam and Shrijan scam. The Shrijan scam has its roots in 2009 when Nitish was the chief minister with the BJP’s support.Manorama Devi of Bhagalpur ran a non-government organisation (NGO) known as Shrijan Mahila Vikas Samiti (SMVS) where she trained poor women in making pickles. Soon she was found moving in Patna’s corridors of power and meeting top ruling party leaders and bureaucrats and offering them hospitality at her Bhagalpur establishment.There is evidence of allegedly illegal favours done to her with the CBI filing a charge sheet against a former IAS officer and then Bhagalpur district magistrate, K.P. Ramaiah and 59 others including Manorama Devi herself.The charges were for transferring huge funds from the treasury to Manorama’s private account. The manner is similar to how Shyam Bihari Sinha had allegedly used fake vouchers to draw funds from treasuries to allegedly oblige politicians in power.Ramaiah was close to Nitish. In 2014, he took voluntary retirement and contested on a Janata Dal (United) ticket against Meira Kumar of the Congress on the Sasaram seat.Also read: Before Polls, CBI Charge Sheet to Nitish’s ‘Trusted’ Officer Rekindles Srijan Scam Politics in BiharAttack and praiseIt was in 2013 when the Shrijan scam was simmering. Nitish revolted against Narendra Modi’s rise in the BJP. Subsequently, his JD(U) became the part of the RJD-JD(U)-Congress mahagathbandhan or ‘grand alliance’ that trounced the BJP in 2015 assembly elections in Bihar.But campaigning for the BJP at Muzaffarpur and Gopalganj, Narendra Modi who had become prime minister by then, enumerated as many as 22 charges of corruption and scams against Nitish.It was in 2017 when the news related to the Shrijan scam began coming out in the media. Nitish stunned the RJD and also people at large by returning to the BJP. The first thing he did after forming the government with BJP was to hand over the Shrijan scam case to the CBI. The CBI filed its first chargesheet in the case just ahead of the 2020 assembly elections in Bihar when reports were doing the rounds that Nitish might desert BJP again and was at the same time involved in a hard bargaining for seats with the BJP. Modi – whose BJP is locked in a fierce contest with the Samajwadi Party-led alliance in Uttar Pradesh and which lost many of its allies in the last couple of years – has described Nitish as a “sachcha samajvadi” or true socialist.The RJD’s national vice president and veteran socialist leader, Shivanand Tiwary has asked, “Did the charges of corruption levelled by Modi and the fear of the CBI tightening its noose goad Nitish to return to BJP? After all, Nitish was on record alleging that his (Modi’s) name strikes fear among the minorities and had vowed never to go back to the BJP”.Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author and professor of journalism and mass communication at Invertis University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.