A difference between beef and cow meat; beef you have from buffalo, donkey, too: Tejaswi Yadav

In Bihar there is no fight. That is why the BJP is very desperate. A dozen Union ministers have come and left their work in Delhi pending. In whose hands the country is, nobody knows. They are just focused on the Bihar election because they are losing. Has they been winning, they would have been at ease, the prime minister would not have taken out 20 to 30 rallies. Daude, daude aa rahe hai (he is coming running). It shows we have the upper hand.

Will Lalu Prasad’s supporters vote for Nitish Kumar, and will Nitish’s supporters vote for you?

Why not? An alliance is in place and we are one now. What is the difference between Laluji and Nitishji? Why have they united? On the issue of secularism.

What is your main poll plank?

I say the BJP is anti-development. I talk about development… People are accepting that, everyone knows it… What has happened in Dadri? Some RSS man announced from the temple that some people are eating cow meat. People went and beat him up and killed him. Why did this happen?

Lalu talked about it.

Lalu Prasad talked about beef. There is a difference between beef and gau maas (cow meat). Beef you have from buffalo, donkey, too, all meat is included. You can check on Google, there is a huge difference. And what is wrong in this? Shobhaa De tweeted that I eat beef and I am a Hindu, come kill me, (Ram) Jethmalani said it, Justice Katju said it. Are they not Hindus? My father just said that some people eat…

Then why did he withdraw it?

See, it was shown in a twisted manner, the sentence was broken up and represented wrongly. When these people phans gaye (got trapped) in the reservation issue, they wanted to try out this agenda. Why did this issue arise all of a sudden?

Do you think the Dadri issue will be raised in Bihar?

Yes, yes. On the topic of beef, Bihar’s development will take place! (Grins)… If development will take place when the BJP comes, why are they backing out now? The Dadri issue will have no effect. Bihar has always been secular, and the secular people here are very powerful, very positive. When Mumbai, when the whole country, was burning after the Babri Masjid incident, only Bihar was not burning. When my father was chief minister, he was successful in uniting the people. Bihar will always be secular.

Is there any competition between you and your brother Tej Pratap?

My brother is senior, my sister Misa is the eldest. I am the eighth child — I have a younger sister who got married recently. We are one. There is no difference between Misa, Tej and Tejaswi. If we were worried about competition, why would we consider Nitishji as chief minister? We would not have forged an alliance.

How is the alliance working?

We agreed on the alliance because of the way the BJP played the jati card in the Lok Sabha polls. The PM used to keep saying ‘I am pichhda (backward)’. I am a pichhda; he is a so-called pichhda. He is not a pichhda. He is a tea seller’s son. He said I am from Dwarka, Yaduvanshis are brothers etc. And Nitishji, Laluji, they understood that this was to target us. They decided to overcome their differences… And when the two big leaders of Bihar, when two of the biggest parties, are together, then it is for development for Bihar.

Some people say that if the RJD gets more seats than the JD(U), Lalu will demand that the CM be from his party.

How will this happen? Why will this happen? It cannot happen. Once you have given a public commitment — Laluji has said that Nitishji will become CM whether I have more seats or not — only he will be there. My father is not a dhokebaaz. Once he has committed something, he will stick to it.

Is there any deal under which you will become deputy CM?

See, the question of deputy CM, lots of people ask me. But no one asks the BJP about the CM. Let the BJP announce their CM first, then we will think about our deputy CM.

You have lived an urban life in Delhi. Is it now awkward to be tagged with the Yadav caste?

See, jati is sachchai, the truth of life. What is your surname, what is mine, let us remove it. Why do we use it? Did Laluji decide jati, that you are Brahmin, you are Baniya, you are Yadav, you are Muslim? This has been existing for years. And when my father talks about social justice, it is not only for Yadavs. It is about the backwards and the Dalits and the Mahadalits. My father says that even if there are poor people among the upper castes, we will include them too. We are not jati-vaadi, we talk about the poor… You tell me how many Brahmins are beggars? How many Baniyas are beggars? See it not only caste, caste, caste. Who has contributed the most in the creation of modern cities? Do the poor who build the cities not want to stay in those flats? Now, this government is not releasing the caste census, they have released the Hindu-Muslim census. This shows you are communal, not pro-poor. What was the need to say there are so many Muslims and so many Hindus? You should have said someone comes from a poor household, now we have to do this. And when people talk about casteism and blame us… Even we can say how many Brahmins there are in the PM’s cabinet. Tell me even one SC, ST or OBC officer in the PM’s Office. Not one was appointed by this PM. But we are not saying it.

You too have swanky cars and live in a plush house.

So should I go back to basics only? This is what bothers people. When my father was five, my grandfather Kundan Prasad passed away. They had a small hut. My father had six siblings. Grandmother used to wash utensils in people’s houses. My uncle Madanji worked as a chaprasi and stay in the servants’ quarter in Patna. My father stayed there and studied. I was born in that quarter.

But you have not experienced poverty.

Half my family has seen it. Besides me, my brothers and sisters… the education and upbringing of all of them has been from that quarter. But things do change. How will we take the people ahead unless we have the resources? If people have made my father the leader, then he is working for it too. Does he wear (Christian) Dior scarves like the PM does? Does he wear a Rs 15 lakh suit? If the son of a chaiwala becomes the PM and wears a Rs 15 lakh suit, then that is all right. But if my father still wears a dhoti and ganji, then that is not all right. This is not fair.

Read the full interview here.