Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Laloo Prasad Yadav came to the defence of his party colleague Mohammed Shahabuddin and lambasted both the BJP and the Media for raking up a controversy over the bail granted to him. Pointing out that such decisions can be taken only by the Courts, he questioned whether the bail granted to Shahabuddin was hurting the media in any manner. “Moreover, what right has the media to question such matters?”

Laloo Prasad Yadav said that he was being targeted by the media in collusion with the Bharateeya Janata Party (BJP). While criticism has been making the rounds during the past few days over the granting of bail to Shahabuddin by the Patna High Court, Laloo Prasad Yadav had been maintaining stoic silence. But with the issue persistently grabbing news bytes, specifically with reports of Nitish Kumar government - of which RJD is a coalition partner- contemplating to move the Supreme Court for the cancellation of the bail granted by the Patna High Court, Laloo decided to have his say on the issue.

The inspiration for Laloo to break his silence and defend Shahabuddin must also have from the latter’s statement eulogizing former’s leadership. of the The big question is whether this move by the Bihar Government going to create a crack in the relations between the two coalition partners – RJD and Janata Dal (United).

More than the issue of Shahabuddin, the persistent focus by the media can be attributed to their looking at a break up between the two parties. Shahabuddin, was released on bail from Bhagalpur jail on Saturday after 11 years. He is a prime accused in almost 50 criminal cases including several murder cases.