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Journalism of Courage
As the Samajwadi Party (SP) outperformed the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, one of its highlights was the victory in the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency of which Ayodhya is a part. The party’s veteran MLA Awadhesh Prasad, one of the SP’s founder members, defeated two-time MP Lallu Singh by 54,567 votes. Prasad was the only Dalit candidate to win from a non-reserved constituency in UP.
Prasad’s win is being viewed as an ideological victory of the SP and the INDIA bloc since Ayodhya, where the Ram Temple is located, was a prestige battle for the BJP. Since his victory, Prasad’s supporters and well-wishers have been thronging his home, some coming with bouquets and others with photos of B R Ambedkar and Mulayam Singh Yadav. In the interview with The Indian Express, Prasad discusses the significance of his victory, the Ram Temple issue, and gets emotional while remembering his mother Maina Devi, who passed away while he was in prison during the Emergency.
Excerpts:
This is not my victory, this is the victory of the great people of Ayodhya. I fully resolve that I will live up to the feelings and expectations of the people. Awadhesh Prasad will consider it his victory when he lives up to what he promised.
The BJP was spreading lies in the country, saying, ‘Hum Ram ko laaye hain (We brought back Ram)’. The reality is they cheated the country in the name of Ram, did business in the name of Ram, allowed inflation to rise in the name of Ram, created unemployment in the name of Ram, and uprooted the poor and farmers in the name of Ram. The BJP has worked to destroy the dignity of Ram. People have understood this very well.
Of course. The BJP knows to do one thing very well — Hindu-Muslim polarisation and repeated references to Pakistan. They didn’t care about the youth of the country who remained unemployed. China occupied our land but there is no discussion about it. Inflation is increasing but there is no worry.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav fielded me from a general seat and I won. This is unprecedented. I have contested 11 elections, won nine, and have been a minister six times. I even won an election in such a way that my opponent could not save his deposit. But this was an election where the public took matters into its own hands. Everyone had faith in me and everyone cooperated. Caste did not come to the fore. Lallu Singh said the BJP needed 400 seats to change the Constitution. He should not have said this. People did not like it.
My leader Mulayam Singh Yadav used to say that a temple must be built in Ayodhya, even if it is made of gold, but this should be done through mutual agreement or based on the decision of the court. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, the same issue came before him too. He also had the same opinion.
In the end, the temple was built only after the court’s decision. No matter the government, if the court’s decision had come, the temple would have definitely been built. But forcibly taking credit is wrong. The public understood ‘ye Ram ko laane waale nahi hain, Ram toh hazaaron saal se yahi hain (They are not the ones who brought back Ram, he has been here for thousands of years)’.
I have full hope that the orders of the honourable Supreme Court will be followed in letter and spirit.
My only regret is that I could not see my mother (in her last moments). It was during Emergency and I was in jail at the time. Her body was kept for five days but I could not have the last darshan of Amma.
When I was in jail, my mother came to meet me. She was very happy at the time. She was so happy that when she returned to the village, people asked if I had been released and she replied, ‘He is in jail for the country.’
There was a deputy jailer at the time. When he stopped her from meeting me, my mother told him, ‘My son is not in prison for any theft or robbery. He has come here for the country, one day he will earn a big name and he will deal with people like you.’ She died the same day. Later, when I became the Jail Minister, the deputy jailer came to meet me and I forgave him…
I could not attend my father Dukhiram’s funeral either because of elections. Chaudhary Charan Singh had come and Sharad Yadav’s election was going on in Amethi (1981 Lok Sabha bypolls, Yadav was up against Rajiv Gandhi). He made me sit in his car and said, ‘Awadhesh ji, we can go back only after the elections are over.’ I was the counting agent. When the news of my father’s death came, I was in a dilemma about whether to go see him for the last time or listen to my political father Chaudhary Charan Singh. I chose to follow Charan Singh’s orders and only went home after 14 days.
