Gopal Khemka Murder Clouds Bihar’s State of Governance
Gopal Khmka and CCTV footage! (Image video grab)
Editorial: Patna Businessman Gopal Khemka Killing Sparks Political Storm
By TRH Editorial Desk
PATNA, July 5, 2025—The brutal killing of Gopal Khemka, a Patna-based businessman and former BJP leader, just 300 meters from a police station, is more than a tragic crime. It is a mirror reflecting the enduring collapse of law and order in Bihar — a collapse the state has refused to acknowledge, let alone address.
This wasn’t just another violent episode in a state often caricatured for criminal impunity. This was a high-profile execution in the heart of Patna, under the watch of the very government that claims to have brought “good governance” and “development” to Bihar.
The fact that Khemka’s son was murdered in a similar fashion in 2018, with no resolution or justice in sight, only underscores a grim truth: in Bihar, even history doesn’t repeat itself as tragedy and farce — it repeats itself as routine.
The political outcry was swift. The opposition — especially RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and Independent MP Pappu Yadav — pointed to the grotesque irony of a businessman being executed in front of a police station, just months before the 2025 Assembly elections. Their accusations of “Jungle Raj” may carry the sting of political rhetoric, but they also ring with undeniable validity. When law enforcement arrives two hours late to a murder scene within walking distance, what else can one call it?
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s response, as always, came in the form of a high-level meeting and a warning to police officials. But this model of reactive governance — crisis, outrage, meeting, repeat — no longer reassures anyone. The citizens of Bihar are tired of symbolic action. They want justice, not joint task forces that fade into irrelevance within weeks.
That the alleged motive may be a property dispute makes the situation worse. If industrialists and entrepreneurs in Bihar can’t rely on the state to protect their most basic rights — to life, property, and safety — then what incentive is left to invest, to build, or even to stay? The business community in Patna, now shaken and fearful, has made this anxiety loud and clear.
To deflect from this killing by citing motives or procedural progress is to miss the larger point. Bihar’s problem is not merely criminal; it is systemic apathy. It is policing without presence, governance without accountability, and leadership without courage.
If this brazen murder — with CCTV footage, a prior family tragedy, and a location next to a police station — fails to secure swift justice, what hope is left for the average citizen?
Bihar cannot afford to normalize such violence. The murder of Gopal Khemka is not just a crime — it is a test of the state’s soul. If Nitish Kumar’s government fails this time, it may not just lose power; it may lose the people’s last thread of faith in its ability to govern.
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