The burden of grief, at a juncture that could be most critical in his political career, proved too much for Lok Janshakti Party Chairman Chirag Paswan, who fell unconscious after lighting his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s funeral pyre here on Saturday.
The 37-year-old lawmaker has been a mourning image since his father took his last breath in a Delhi hospital on Thursday.
Chirag, known for being an obedient son who even served as a barber for his father during the national lockdown, raised a flag of rebellion against Bihar’s chief minister, Nitish Kumars JD (U), announcing the surprising decision to go solo on the assembly polls, spending most of their time next to Paswan senior’s hospital bed.
He wept when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his residence in Delhi to pay his last respects.
Chirag wept inconsolably on Saturday morning when BJP deputy and former minister Ram Kripal Yadav, who has known Chirag since he was a child, visited his home in Patna.
Yadav was also moved to tears and the two stood for some time, holding each other tightly.
At the Digha ghat on the bank of the Ganges, Chirag fainted after lighting the funeral pyre, but his cousins who had been by his side saved him from crashing to the ground, helping him perform the rituals.
“He’s out of the woods. The mental stress coupled with dehydration caused by standing for hours in hot and humid weather may have taken its toll, ”said a source close to the family.
After the cremation, Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh told reporters: “The death of Paswans marks the end of an era. He must have been the last surviving political leader with decades of parliamentary experience. Its popularity can be measured by the fact that all of Bihar’s central ministers are present here. I can also see representatives of various political parties ”. “He is one of the few luminaries who strongly defended the Mandal Commission when VP Singh’s government implemented its recommendations and rejected the detractors when he opposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s well-intentioned quota for the economically weaker sectors,” he said. Singh.
“We are all with the grieving family in this hour of pain,” he added.
Spectators remarked that it takes an “ajaat shatru” (one without enemies) like Ram Vilas Paswan to evoke such tenderness in someone known for his scathing, that also at a time when his party is not happy with the political line adopted by him. successor. – Chirag. PTI NAC SOM SOM
.
