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Journalism of Courage
Ten or even five years ago, a speech like this in a village in interior Bihar would have had no takers. There is no rhetoric against caste oppression, no flashes of rustic humour, no flamboyant attack against his opponents. Instead, it is almost a classroom lecture on development and equal opportunity, backed by a concrete list of promises to change the lot of the ‘‘garib’’ (rather than ‘‘pichdi jati’’) in the state.
The speech is heard with rapt attention, broken by quiet applause. It is a speech he has made again and again for the past few weeks and as Bihar enters the third and final phase of campaigning, Ram Vilas Paswan is trying hard to graduate from being a just a Dalit leader to the ‘messiah of change’ in Bihar.
That his effort has met with a measure of success is clear when at a dozen-odd chopper-stop meetings in East and West Champaran districts, bordering Nepal, the most-frequently raised slogan is ‘‘Vikas Purush zindabad’’.
His attacks on the Laloo-Rabri regime draw appreciative murmurs, his encomiums to secularism and pluralism visibly move the Muslims in the audience, but the maximum attention and applause are reserved for the theme of ‘‘vikas’’.
Once the RJD is swept away and a new regime (he never spells out the contours of the alternative, though) takes over, the priorities will change, Paswan asserts. The string of promises include ‘‘employment guarantee for the youth; Rs 70-80 minimum wages so that Bihari labourers don’t have to migrate seasonally to Punjab and Haryana; health cards for the poor; free medical test for every newborn; a government bank deposit of Rs 5,000 for every girl child; a Muslim university on the lines of Aligarh Muslim University in Bihar; reservation of jobs for Muslims.’’
The development theme apart, Paswan—through a shrewd choice of candidates who cut across caste lines—is clearly emerging as the most significant factor in the Bihar elections today. His significance lies in the fact that his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is an entirely untested entity in the politics of Bihar. Laloo Prasad Yadav’s political future in the state increasingly seems to hinge on the LJP factor. If the LJP does well, Laloo is in trouble; if it makes no more than a slight dent then the RJD will return, even if it gets just 90-odd seats.
For Paswan too, the elections are crucial. Unlike most Indian politicians who start out in state politics before they become national leaders, Paswan has followed the reverse trajectory. Barring his first election in 1969 when he won the Alouli assembly seat, he has always been an MP. His claim to fame was his Guiness Book record of winning with the highest margin from Hajipur in 1977, a record he broke in 1989.
And as a Dalit MP from Bihar, he made it to the Union Cabinet time and again—holding a gamut of Cabinet portfolios, starting with Labour and Welfare under V P Singh; Railways under H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral; Communications and Coal under A B Vajpayee; and now Steel and Chemicals and Fertilisers in the UPA Government.
For his critics, Paswan’s ability to get a Cabinet rank regardless of which coalition is in power is a reflection of his opportunism and ideological fluidity. But Paswan is cleverly using his Cabinet experience to bolster the claim that he is the best ‘Vikas Purush’ Bihar could hope for.
Before he reels of the list of promises, he unfailingly mentions all that he did for Bihar as Union minister. ‘‘When I was railway minister for 18 months, I provided 22,000 jobs for the youth of Bihar. Laloo has been the minister for nine months—and he hasn’t given any jobs even to the Yadavs,’’ he says to loud cheers.
The Mandal Commission report was implemented when he was social welfare minister, the most extensive telecommunications network was laid in Bihar during his stint as telecom minister, and as coal minister he ensured that all coal miners received quality health care. In short, he has used power to benefit the poor and working class and not to make money (‘‘I have never been named in a single scam’’), he insists.
One reason Paswan’s campaign is working is that the RJD’s own social base has now become restive and are much more responsive to the development theme than they were in the past. Coming from the most socially oppressed class himself, Paswan was able to sense that the Dalits, OBCs and Muslims now want to go beyond social justice to economic well-being.
But Paswan also knows that the battle against Laloo is not easy. For one thing, the Congress—despite all his efforts—has refused to break ties with Laloo and has made it obvious that any secular government in Patna will have to include the RJD.
And then there is Laloo himself, and his magic ability to hold on to his base. At one of his meetings today, Paswan said: ‘‘We are a peculiar people. All year, we beat snakes but on Nag Panchami we feed milk to the same snake.’’ In other words, for the last five years you have been abusing the government but on election day, don’t make the mistake of voting for them again. The future of both Paswan and Laloo depends on how many people heed that particular bit of advice this time.
