Bihar Elections: The origin of 'jungle raj', the label that defined Lalu-Rabri era of 1990s

‘Jungle raj’ has been one of the strongest narratives around the Bihar’s safety ecosystem, which has seen some of the worst crime numbers—much worse than the national average.

With the Bihar Assembly elections around the corner, the term has once again gained currency. During his key rally from Karpoori Thakur’s birthplace, Samastipur, PM Modi used the term ‘jungle raj’ 17 times in his 45-minute address.

Calling the Opposition’s alliance ‘thagbandhan,’ PM Modi issued a warning, saying that the Rahul Gandhi-Tejashwi Yadav duo is trying to bring back the ‘jungle raj’ days in Bihar.

“Phir ek baar, NDA sarkar; phir ek baar sushasan sarkar; jungle raj waalon ko door rakhega Bihar,” PM Modi said during the rally.

Echoing his sentiments, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also been seen using the term to slam the Lalu-Rabri era in Bihar.

‘Jungle raj’, which refers to widespread lawlessness in Bihar, is often used to describe the 15-year-long regime of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi from 1990 to 2005. During this period, Bihar also saw President’s Rule in 1999 and 2005. Nitish Kumar briefly came to power in 2000.

Amid political upheaval and deteriorating civic order, ‘jungle raj’ became part of Bihar’s political lexicon sometime in the late 1990s.

It all happened in the year of 1997. During a hearing, the division bench of the Patna High Court made the observation that included this term. According to an August 6, 1997 report by the Business Satndard, Justice Dharampal Sinha and Justice V P Singh made the remark during a hearing on the contempt plea filed by social activist Krishna Sahay. His petition was regarding poor civic conditions in Patna.

Expressing their concerns on the situation in Patna, the division bench had observed, "It is worse than the Jungle Raj and there is no regard to court directions and public interest."

Later, in 2000 state Assembly elections, the Opposition used ‘jungle raj’ term to level allegations against Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.

The RJD supremo tried to turn this around with caste equation. He claimed that those accusing Bihar of jungle raj were saying so because people from lower castes were in power. And this caste equation narrative worked with RJD emerging as single largest party in the 2000 polls. Despite Nitish Kumar getting first invite from the Governor, Rabri Devi came back to power and completed full term till 2005.

In his book The Brothers Bihari, journalist Sankarshan Thakur wrote succinctly wrote about the caste part in the jungle raj narrative. “In a way what Laloo Yadav said during the campaign was right — the NDA was shouting jungle raj because Bihar under Laloo Yadav was not a jungle dominated by the upper castes; that was what the BJP wanted to create and would have created — a jungle where the upper castes hunted.”