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Journalism of Courage
Sushil Kumar Modi was the BJP’s tallest leader in Bihar after Kailashpati Mishra and played an instrumental role in making the party a force to reckon with in the state. But throughout his career, the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, who was posthumously honoured with the Padma Bhushan on Saturday, remained largely unsung as he conceded a much bigger space to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the narrative around Bihar’s turnaround after the turbulent period in the 1990s.
Modi, who was a product of the JP Movement like Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, became MLA for the first time in 1990 and in 1995 helped the BJP emerge as the principal Opposition party. He was instrumental in building strong ties with NDA ally and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar with whom the BJP first formed the government in 2005. In his two stints as Deputy CM spanning a total of 11 years, Modi was credited with effective fiscal management of the state and ushering in a period of stability. He was also known for innovative ideas, bringing in the concept of a gender budget focusing on women’s welfare. He got each government department to provide a break-up of their allocation for women-centric schemes. As a minister, he also left a mark nationally as, starting in July 2011, he headed the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for the implementation of GST.
Modi was a vociferous critic of Lalu Prasad. Right from being one of five petitioners in the fodder scam case, he held 48 conferences in 2017 to target the RJD chief and his family in the alleged soil scam that ended up with CBI raids, and the lodging of the IRCTC case against Lalu Prasad, his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and others. After the Centre’s announcement of the Padma Bhushan for Modi, the RJD welcomed it. Praising Modi, RJD spokesperson Subodh Kumar Mehta said the party always respected him as an opponent. “It is a matter of pride that a leader coming from the JP Movement and belonging to the generation of Lalu Prasad has been bestowed with the Padma award. Even though he was our political adversary, we always respected his political acumen and meticulous preparation as an opponent,” Mehta told The Indian Express.
Recalling the contributions of Modi, whom he called a “gentleman politician”, BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan, who is from the next generation of Bihar BJP leaders, said, “There was always a lot to learn from Sushil ji, right from his understanding of a subject to his conduct, simplicity, and humility. The Padma award is an acknowledgement of his remarkable service. Rising from the JP Movement and the dark phase of Emergency, he can be credited with giving Bihar a stable government with Nitish Kumar. He was a formidable voice of sanity and reason in Indian polity.”Former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, whose political journey also began along with that of Modi, remembered Modi’s discipline as a party worker and his contribution as a minister. “As Bihar’s Finance Minister, he scripted the state’s turnaround story under Nitish Kumar. As the chairperson of the state finance ministers empowered committee on GST, he played a crucial role in realising PM Narendra Modi’s dream of one nation, one tax,” he told The Indian Express.
This discipline and commitment to the party saw Sushil Modi campaign for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh during the 2023 Assembly elections even though his doctors advised against it. He had been diagnosed with cancer in December 2022. But the BJP leader visited Chhindwara, the turf of Congress leader Kamal Nath, for campaign soon after a chemotherapy session, recalled his close associate Shailendra Kumar Ojha. Besides his family and staff, no one knew about his illness. It was only during the 2024 Lok Sabha poll campaign that Modi revealed his illness, expressing his inability to contribute to the party. Sushil Modi passed away on May 13, 2024.
