Updated: October 9, 2020 7:20:13 am
On Thursday night, Ram Vilas Paswan breathed his last in a Delhi hospital.
Ram Vilas Paswan’s political partner in Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, once angrily called him Mausam Vaigyanik (weather vane), as Paswan had the uncanny ability to sniff out the winning side of politics.
Due to his astute impeachment, Paswan had an unmatched record of being a central minister in virtually every government from 1989 to 2020, with only occasional periods of being out of power.
He served as a minister in the governments of VP Singh, HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. The portfolios he had included Railroads, Labor and Welfare, Food. The 74-year-old was the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at the time of his death.
His detractors sometimes said that Paswan hit far more than his weight in New Delhi, simply because he was a high-level Dalit leader suitable for a party like the BJP to present itself as a masterpiece. They said he was not a mass leader in terms of ability to attract votes. His party, the Lok Janshakti Party, generally garnered only about 6.5 percent of the vote in his home state, although it could occasionally tip the balance.
But this is an easy understatement of a very canny politician whose dominance of realpolitik is reflected in his long survival in a fierce game. He was the best known Dalit politician in Bihar after Jagjivan Ram.
Even as Paswan lay in a hospital in New Delhi, his son Chirag, who once tried to make a name for himself in Bollywood but failed, upheld his father’s tradition of ensuring that the LJP remains relevant in upcoming polls of the assembly of Bihar.
Read | Ram Vilas Paswan’s death will overshadow Bihar elections
Chirag has been regularly criticizing Nitish Kumar, much to the chagrin of Bihar’s Chief Minister, who is furious that the BJP has made little effort to stop his ally. Indeed, in a curious state of affairs allowed by the BJP leadership, the LJP remains an ally of the government in the Center as its candidates compete against the JD (U) at the state level in assembly elections.
Ram Vilas Paswan during an event in New Delhi. (Express Photography: Tashi Tobgyal)
Paswan’s strength lay in part in his very pleasant, accommodating, and helpful nature. If I could please a fellow politician, even if the person were on the opposite side, or help a journalist in trouble, I would do my best to help. Its doors were always open and it never stood in ceremony.
As a minister in the Vajpayee government, Paswan still maintained very cordial relations with neighboring Sonia Gandhi who lived just down the street in New Delhi. When he resigned from the Vajpayee government in 2002 over Gujarat’s communal unrest, Gandhi was very happy to welcome him into the UPA fold.
Similarly, Narendra Modi did not seem to blame Paswan for leaving the NDA apparently due to the Gujarat government’s failure to protect minorities. When he returned to the fold of the NDA, Paswan was rewarded by being appointed minister in the Modi I and Modi II governments.
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As a minister, Paswan’s most memorable achievement was getting the Mandal Commission report implemented in 1990 during the brief period of VP Singh’s rule. Paswan was then Minister of Social Welfare and was one of the first to strongly insist that reservations would soon be implemented along the lines suggested by the Mandal Commission, despite national protests from upper-caste youth opposed to the reservation policy. .
Although Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav, their rivals in their home state, have dominated Bihar politics for the past five decades, Paswan entered politics long before them.
Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar Bhawan in 1996 (Express Files: Parveen Jain)
He came from a poor Dalit family, but worked his way up to completing his master’s and bachelor’s degrees. In 1969, he was elected a member of the Bihar assembly of the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP). He was imprisoned during the Emergency and, when he arose in 1977, he joined the Janata Party.
He won from his local seat, Hajipur, by the largest margin at the time, and made a name for himself in the Guinness Book of Records. He was going to win eight times in this reserved constituency. Last year, for the first time, he let his brother race from Hajipur, while he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in a deal with the BJP.
Of the six LJP MPs in the current Lok Sabha, two are Paswan’s brothers and one is his son Chirag. In fact, Paswan wanted Modi to appoint Chirag minister, but the prime minister insisted on retaining the highest-ranking Paswan in his cabinet, and not the son.
Read also | Ram Vilas Paswan: Power in Delhi, Heart in Bihar
Always concerned about the programmed castes, Paswan pushed plans for their well-being and the elevation of the oppressed.
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