How Prayagraj became a mobster’s citadel

It is disconcerting that a mobster-politician could establish political sway, which also enabled his criminal activities to grow and flourish, in a city that gave India its first three PMs — Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi — and another one in the 1980s, VP Singh.

outlaw: Even though Atiq’s political fortunes declined, his criminal activities continued. ANI

vivek katju

Ex-Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

The political career of Atiq Ahmed, who was killed along with his brother Ashraf on April 15 in Prayagraj by three shooters while he was in police custody, is a reflection of the great decline that occurred in the politics of a city that played a key role in the country’s freedom movement, and gave India its first three Prime Ministers — Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi — and another one in the 1980s,

VP Singh. Altogether, they led the country for over three-and-a-half decades. Besides, Prayagraj (earlier Allahabad) was also a city of other famous statesmen and educationists, literary personalities and jurists whose reputation was not limited to India. They all made striking contributions to India’s national life. How did a mobster-politician establish political sway, which also enabled his criminal activities to grow and flourish, in a city with such credentials? Social scientists need to probe this phenomenon, for the issues that it raises impacts India’s democratic evolution.

The intermingling of crime with politics, with lesser or greater intensity throughout the country, became a part of India’s public life over the decades. Prayagraj was no distant political backwater. Hence, in retrospect, it seems incredible that Atiq, then not a fully established muscleman and mobster, was able to carve out a political role for himself in the city relatively easily — if his official age is to be accepted — at 27, when he won the Allahabad West seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as an Independent candidate in 1989. He succeeded in retaining this seat for 15 years through five elections! When he did give up the seat, it was to contest the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2004. Nehru had won three elections — 1952, 1957 and 1962 — from Phulpur. Atiq won the 2004 election, and thus had a two-decade-long political innings in Prayagraj.

Atiq belonged to the Gaddi Muslim ‘biradari’, who inhabit some city areas near the Jumna. They are generally engaged in petty trade, including selling milk. The Ashrafs do not consider them their equal; some state that the Gaddis are a turbulent lot and are known to nurse grievances. Atiq’s family circumstances were strained. It is widely held that his father was a tonga driver. It is also reported that he began his criminal activities, including engaging in violence, in his late teens. However, till the mid-1980s, my friends belonging to the Indian Police Service, and having an intimate knowledge of Prayagraj, say that he had not come on the radar of the district’s senior police officers. However, some persons, even in those early days, utilised his ‘services’ to ‘send messages’ to others.

Prayagraj had thugs, but they largely confined themselves to the old city. They were also of no significance politically. The city’s geography is relevant to Atiq’s story, hence a reference would not be out of place. The British decided to shift the capital of the North West Province from Agra to Allahabad after suppressing the ‘First War of Independence’. They decided to build a new city beyond the old. Vast areas between the Ganga and the Jumna were simply taken over and a new city with a well-planned Civil Lines and cantonment was established. The Civil Lines area witnessed the first plotted development. Three-acre plots were demarcated and given on lease for 99 years. A High Court was set up in 1866 and a university in 1887. Eventually, as the decades passed, these plots were acquired by Indian lawyers and professionals and business people. At one stage, they were well kept, but 1960s onwards, many of the large properties declined. Despite this, till the 1980s, the forays of the musclemen of the old city beyond their traditional strongholds were few.

The 1980s was a period of great social and political churn. Caste-based parties emerged in the state, as elsewhere in the country, and communal politics acquired an edge. Naturally, this impacted Allahabad, too. It is during this decade that Atiq began to spread his wings, initially through an association with a known criminal of the old city, but he also entered the business of tendering for railway metal scrap, etc. He clearly saw an opportunity to acquire a political role by contesting the Allahabad West State Assembly constituency. His senior criminal associate did so too, but Atiq won. A day before the results were declared, the senior associate was killed in a violent clash with Atiq.

As an MLA, Atiq acquired political heft and began to intervene in land-grabbing and extortion in areas beyond the old city. The land business became especially lucrative once the state government decided to transform leasehold land to freehold in the 1990s. Builders moved in, and it is reported that Atiq demanded a share in the business. Meanwhile, once he had retained his MLA seat twice as an Independent after his initial victory, the Samajwadi Party opened its door to him, despite his increasing involvement in crime. He also figured in the infamous 1996 guest house episode in Lucknow against BSP chief Mayawati. In 2005, unable to stomach his brother’s defeat in his bastion at the hands of Raju Pal, who some reports claim was his own one-time associate, Atiq is alleged to have been behind his murder. From there, the chain led to the murder allegedly — including by his son Asad — of Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the Raju Pal murder, in February this year. Asad was killed in a police encounter two days before Atiq’s murder. While he was holding legislative office, it is reported that Atiq’s will prevailed even over senior officers of the Central government.

After 2009, Atiq’s political fortunes declined, but his criminal activities continued and even went beyond Prayagraj. The fear he evoked in his victims was palpable and only some conscientious officers faced him fearlessly. While the UP Police have difficult questions to answer for the laxity showed by them, which enabled the killers to murder Atiq in front of TV cameras, few will mourn his death.

For me, who grew up in Prayagraj where my family lived for a century, the real lesson of Atiq’s life story lies in the decline of a once noble and notable city.