Obituary | Ram Vilas Paswan (1946-2020): A man for all seasons

Indian politics has lost an artful and perhaps the most successful proponent of social justice in the passing away of 74-year-old Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, in a Delhi hospital, on Wednesday. “My father is no more. But wherever he is, I know he is with me. Miss you Papa,” tweeted his son and new President of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chirag Paswan, the party Paswan had founded after splitting from Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in 2000.

An extraordinary practitioner of the craft of realpolitik who remained Minister at the Centre almost uninterruptedly for three decades regardless of which dispensation was in power, Paswan’s death leaves the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections bereft of its colour, tenor, and possibility of prediction. For, whichever side Paswan would remain till the end was undisputedly the future winner. As his former colleague Lalu Prasad Yadav described in his inimitable parlance – you could literally see which way the wind was blowing by following Ram Vilas Paswan.

It is his legacy that his son Chirag followed when he announced “ideological differences” earlier this week in splitting from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar for the duration of the elections but still swore allegiance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre. And, Ram Vilas Paswan remained Union Minister till his demise although his party had officially split from the NDA in Bihar. Since 1996, Paswan held a Cabinet berth in all the Councils of Ministers at the Centre.

An astounding eight-term MP, Paswan entered the Guinness Book of World Record by winning the post-Emergency general elections in 1977 from Hajipur bordering Patna in Bihar by a margin of 4.24 lakh votes.  In the post-Mandal era, when Bihar and UP witnessed the rise of strong OBC leaders in Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav, Paswan represented the Dalit assertion in Bihar with a strong community base. He only lost from Hajipur constituency twice – once in the post-India Gandhi assassination wave in favour of the Congress in 1984 and then again in 2009 when he parted ways from the Congress and forged an alliance with Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He won again in 1989, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014. A Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA, Paswan quit NDA following riots in Gujarat in 2002 and demanded the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation. He, however, rejoined the NDA in 2014 after having served a full term as Minister in Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.

But for all his success, Paswan remained a thoroughly approachable and affable politician. He kept an open house, and his home or hotel room in Patna was a refuge for all hungry political hacks covering any election in Bihar. In the 2010 Bihar Assembly polls, he and BJP’s chief strategist Arun Jaitley occupied rooms in different floors at a hotel in Patna. Jaitley’s quarters were frequented for political dope and gauging trends in the polls while Paswan fobbed off most questions by serving delicious, home-cooked meals. Jaitley would recall Paswan’s unlimited enthusiasm for elections by quoting their former alliance partner Sharad Yadav in the 2009 general elections. This was the only election when Paswan’s party did badly and failed to win a single seat in the 15th Lok Sabha. But he was still facing TV cameras with a smiling face. “Agar ham itne bure haarte to khaat se nahin uth pate. Isko dekho, byte dene chal pada (I wouldn’t have been able to get up from bed if I lost this badly. Look at him, he is giving TV bites),” Sharad Yadav said.

Paswan leaves behind a strong support base and party organisation which is now fully in command of his son. He would forever be remembered as someone who never lost a taste for success and still retained his moorings.

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