The audacious killing of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique (66) in Mumbai’s Bandra East on Saturday evening outside his son's and Bandra East MLA Zeeshan Siddique’s office has caused ripples in the Maharashtra political sea as the State Assembly elections are due and the former MLA had a substantial political clout, especially with the minority community.
Now, it has been reported that a gangster jailed in Gujarat for multiple cases, Lawrence Bishnoi, claimed to have killed Baba Siddique for his proximity to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, whom Bishnoi wants to kill for poaching a Blackbuck way back in 1998. The Bishnoi community of Rajasthan respects the Blackbuck as a deity. Lawrence Bishnoi is from Punjab. Lawrence reportedly said that those who are friends with Salman Khan will meet with the same fate.
When there were rumours of rivalry between Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, it was Siddique’s Iftar party where both the Khans met and reconciled. Such was the aura of Baba Siddique in Bollywood.
Lawrence’s attempts to target Salman are not new. On April 14, 2024, gunshots were heard near Salman Khan’s apartment in Bandra West. A Bishnoi group claimed responsibility. The Mumbai police arrested Vicky Gupta and Sagar Pal from Bhuj, Gujarat, for this shooting. They reportedly told police that they had been ordered to fire 10 rounds aimed at Galaxy apartment, where Salman Khan lives. In 2018, the Bishnoi gang had conducted recce of Salman’s house.
The murder of NCP leader Baba Siddique has not only landed the Mahayuti government involving Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, the BJP and Ajit Pawar faction of NCP, in hot water over law and order concerns but also highlights how a North Indian gang is expanding its presence in the metropolis, attempting to fill the vacuum left in Mumbai’s underworld.
By the dawn of this century, most of the underworld gangs in Mumbai, which thrived on fear in the '80s and '90s, had been silenced. The era of daily shootouts, extortion calls, and the killing of builders, mill owners, hoteliers, and filmmakers had faded. Most of the shooters were either killed by the police, who followed the unofficial policy of 'encounters,' or were imprisoned under stringent laws like the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
But the killing of Siddique and attempted murder of Salman Khan shows that organised crime has again taken roots in Mumbai. It is even more astonishing that Siddique was assassinated despite being given ‘Y’ category security after he had received the threat to his life – 15 days before his murder on Saturday night in Mumbai.
Ironically, Siddique, who was earlier a Congress MLA, recently joined Ajit Pawar's faction of the NCP, which is part of the ruling coalition (Mahayuti). This exposes the poor governance, law and order in Maharashtra, Gujarat and the country as a whole.
Bishnoi is now in Sabarmati jail, Gujarat, booked for 12 different cases. Some of his alleged crimes are being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). If Bishnoi was able to execute his plan in Mumbai, it reflects the gross failure of the Gujarat jail administration, the Maharashtra police as well as the NIA.
The 'Y' category is one of the many levels of security coverage provided in India. Security protection is provided to prominent individuals based on their threat perception. The decision on the security level is arrived at after intelligence agencies assess the threat to the person. The ‘Y’ category is a security detail of eight police personnel, including a couple of commandos.
The question that is arising in everyone’s mind is, if a prominent politician with designated security cover and member of the ruling coalition party can be killed in the open and a celebrity can be targeted without any inhibition, then can the common people expect to feel safe? The answer is an obvious NO.
A government which can’t protect one of its own, how can anybody expect it to save the people on the streets, who are killed almost everyday on the streets at the hands of criminals owing political allegiance? The governments – be it in the past or present – have failed its electorate every time. The future is not going to be anything different. The elections in the State are round-the-corner. Can the voters for once at least rise above caste, religion and linguistic politics and seek a change by voting out these corrupt politicians, who are weakening our social structure like termites?
This is the time to get united and show the people’s power by overthrowing the corrupt and incompetent political leadership by voting for candidates with clean image and with a track record of public service. Politicians will divide us. But we must stay united.