He was neither a legislator nor a leader in any sense of the term. In the police records, he was an out and out gangster leading a band of criminals and responsible for murders in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Yet Mukhtar Ansari used to live like a king in Ghazipur district jail in 1995. On a summer day, a team of reporters from Lucknow found Ansari literally cooling his heels in the jail as a large cooler ran at full speed to beat the scorching heat.

His elder brother Afzal Ansari was then a legislator from the CPI. Even a veteran communist like Sarjoo Pandey used to defend Ansari's actions in the garb of Marxist jargon of class struggle and define Ansari's criminal records as a creation of bureaucracy-bourgeoisie nexus. During his stint in the jail, Mukhtar was provided with a STD landline (cellphones were non-existent then) by the ever-obliging jail administration and the BSNL.

He was holding a durbar like a king in front of the media persons. That he chose to remain within the confines of the jail was his choice. There are ample instances to prove that criminal-turned politicians could walk out of the jail at their sweet will. Ansari is not alone in enjoying this privilege. Dhananjay Singh, Raja Bhaiyya, Brajesh Singh and several others have now joined the hall of fame which is euphemistically called the jail in UP.

Those who know the state of affairs in the state are hardly surprised by the fact that Jamuna Nishad, a legislator involved in a murder of a police constable has turned a hospital's private ward as his jail for over a year. Nishad knows it too well that he is capable of manipulating the system to his advantage. Jail authorities and doctors at the hospital can turn against the legislator only at their own risk, while the district administration of Gorakhpur would look the other way as the issue is in the domain of the judiciary.

Perhaps the ease with which characters such as Nishad get away with impunity in UP is a mute testimony to the charade of governance in the state. Even as chief minister Mayawati claims to have launched a campaign to free her party of criminals, she can hardly be absolved of giving legitimacy to criminalisation of politics. She roped in many criminals who were responsible for launching a “murderous assault” on her in the state guest house on June 2, 1995 apparently at the behest of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Aruna Shankar Shukla , Mukhtar Ansari, Rama Kant Yadav joined the BSP with much fanfare in spite of their known criminal antecedents.

That people have lost faith in the politicians' glib talk of “purging criminals” is evident by the fact that all parties are now equally accused of promoting criminals in their ranks. This is the precise reason why jail authorities and hospitals are wary of rubbing people like Nishad wrong way even if it meant going against rules. Nishad can be in jail today but he can be sworn in as minister tomorrow. He committed a crime when he was a minister. And UP politicians have a knack of repeating history quite frequently.