Author, columnist, academic and BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan is among the young leaders making a mark in the party. Recently, the 34-year-old politician was in the news when Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College called off a talk by him on Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14) following opposition by a section of students. “This is intolerance of the highest level. I was willing to have a conversation, to engage with them… Apart from my political affiliation, I also come from an academic background, But even from a political perspective, it’s not correct to stop a person from engaging and speaking. I am a person from the Dalit community willing to speak on Dalit issues on a Dalit leader’s Jayanti. It’s not right,” Paswan told The Indian Express. “Ambedkar fought against discrimination all his life. If an educational institution engages in discrimination on any ground, one must speak up,” he added. Son of former Union minister and MLC Sanjay Paswan (known for being a sharp critic of CM Nitish Kumar), Guru Prakash was appointed BJP spokesperson in September 2020. He is among the four national spokespersons from Bihar (Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjay Mayukh are the others), and among the 25 national spokespersons in BJP president J P Nadda’s team. 🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️ The 34-year-old leader, say political observers, has been working consistently to emerge from his father’s shadow. Apart from being a national spokesperson for the BJP, he is also an assistant professor, teaching law at Patna University. He has co-authored the book Makers of Modern Dalit History with Sudarshan Ramabadran. He completed his LLM from National Law University, New Delhi and LLB from National Law Institute University, Bhopal, and wrote his PhD thesis on the “Socio-legal dimensions of Article 370 of the Constitution of India.” Recently, Paswan has also emerged as a key voice in the BJP, making regular appearances on television channels and writing columns in national newspapers, and is known to be careful with his words on these platforms. He is also an advisor at the Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. In 2006, during his college days in Bhopal, he was associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. In 2019, he became a member of Bihar’s BJP Youth Executive Committee, and went on to become state spokesperson of the BJP’s youth wing in 2020.
