Interview: Modi government already looking for alibis for its failures, says Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti
June 25, 2014
Patna: Misa Bharti, the eldest daughter of former Bihar chief ministers, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, lost the Lok Sabha elections from Patliputra, a casualty of the “Modi wave” that gave the BJP alliance 31 out of the state’s 40 seats. But the qualified medical professional is neither down, nor out: in an interview she outlines the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s agenda, the “alliance” with Nitish Kumar, slams the Narendra Modi government and asks them to learn from her father Lalu Prasad Yadav on how to turn the Indian Railways profitable without “burdening the poor”.
A. When you are asked to contest an election by the party, the idea is to stand for and advocate the ideology your party is committed to. And we should not forget that the party is much bigger than individuals and ideological battles are not decided by the outcome of an election. I’m satisfied with my debut performance where I led in three out of six assembly constituencies. I’m in politics for the long term, and when you do things with conviction, there is no regret regret.
Moreover we knew in advance that “uncle” was hobnobbing with BJP for greener pastures since last one year as he wanted to ride the Modi wave and fulfill his dream of becoming a minister and launching his son in politics, which he couldn’t being in RJD.
Q. How do you see the new alliance in Bihar, your father Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar joining hands to stop the BJP?
A. I believe on the basis of our stand in the Rajya Sabha elections, it is too premature to call it an alliance. However, our party is guided by the fact that my father and our national president categorically stated on 16 May that all those forces fighting for social justice, and are committed to socialist principles and have positioned themselves against communal politics need to put their acts together at an all-India level. We shall certainly strive to make sure that the regressive, rightwing politics does not remain unchallenged.
Q. Huge numbers of RJD members have deserted the party in the past; do you plan to reach them out to get them back to the party-fold?
A. The “huge” in the question is a bit of exaggeration. Certain individuals indeed have left the party but you must check when and why they have left. We need to understand that there are individuals who are exclusively guided and are in fact obsessed with the greed for power. What can the party do about them? Every party in India suffers from this and we are no exception. If politics has to be seen from the perspective of transformatory potential, one should be willing to jettison the desire for always remaining in the corridors of power.
Q. You were named Misa after the controversial Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) passed by the Congress in 1971, which led to the incarceration of your father. Did you ever feel conflicted supporting the Congress?
A. One must learn from history but that does not mean one should become a prisoner to history. When I was named, those were the days of anti-congressism and our party was born as a reaction to those authoritarian streaks but the subsequent realities were different. Both Congress and India’s political scenario have changed a lot since then. We have witnessed the way BJP tried to communalize the whole nation since the 1990s, riots became a political strategy for them leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives. As a sensible and sensitive political party which cared for an inclusive India, we had to stand with the Congress while having our own separate ideology and principles. In fact, I am proud of my party which took a stand for the “Idea of United India” without caring for political losses and profits as some of the other parties have done.
Q. In the next generation of politics in Bihar, Chirag Paswan has taken a lead by firming up the LJP-BJP alliance.
A. My political belief does not allow me to comment on individuals but I believe politics in the coming days and years shall be seriously weighed on the basis of conviction to ideas that shape an India which belongs to all. Politics shall be a vocation, wherein people with progressive ideas and secular democratic outlook shall be valued and in that context RJD has an edge compared to any other political party or individuals. Chirag is young and was with us till recently. But, LJP is not an ideology based party but a power seeking opportunist party and in terms of mass base or vote share, LJP stands nowhere in comparison to RJD.
Q. The NDA alliance swept the general elections in Bihar, according to you as an individual, why did this happen?
A. The 16th Lok Sabha election was very different from the other general elections. We saw an unholy alliance of neoliberal corporatism with rightwing Sangh kind of politics, with a section of the media as conduit. Examine the discourse and you would find that the real issues affecting the lives of the poor, the downtrodden and the minorities were not allowed to occupy centrestage. Large sums of money were used, and as a result, parties like us which did not have other resources except peoples’ conviction, lost. We lost to the carefully crafted frenzy.
Q. You are a medical professional. In the recent encephalitis outbreak in Bihar, do you think the medical assistance being provided by the state government is up to the mark?
A. If you examine the medical history of this “encephalitis corridor” for past seven years, you realize that there is a discernible pattern to it. The government certainly has fallen much short of what it should have done. I believe in such matters, subject experts should be making the decisions and not the political bosses or the bureaucracy. We should also actively seek international pathological and research expertise. Callousness in this may be because the affected kids come from poor families from remote corners in India and no one bothers about them.
Q. How do you rate the Modi government after its first month in power?
A. The Modi government is going along the predictable lines, what we always believed. Look at the key appointments, whether of the NSA or the Principal Secretary, they all come from rightwing organizations. We have also examined the intent of the government through presidential address, which was a copy—paste version of Modiji’s election speeches. A party which vitiated the election atmosphere by using rhetoric of war against Pakistan has suddenly changed the tenor, with saree & shawl exchanges, forgetting our beheaded martyrs.
The Nihal Chand episode shows government’s doublespeak on the issue of clean politics. Inflation is on the rise and the government is clueless, just blaming the hoarders and state governments. Rise in railway fares by a never before whopping 14 percent will flare up inflation further and is a huge anti-poor decision. They can seek my dad’s advice on how to run railways in profit without burdening the poor. Appointment of several naïve and inexperienced ministers in key portfolios is another sign of the centralized authority of the PM.
Many ministers are unable to get private secretaries of their choice. The propaganda and investigations against several NGOs on the pretext of foreign funding is another way of silencing the voice of the common man and civil society which keeps a tab on anti-poor policies of the government. Even their latest stand on FDI in key sectors like defence goes against their old ideology of swadeshi. Insiders tell us that soon railways would be up for privatization.
In last few weeks, their language has changed and they have only looked for alibis for their gross failures. One person calling all the shots is not a good sign for democracy. Are we creating our very own, homegrown Hitler? I do not wish to sound a cynic but the early signals do not speak well for the Modi government’s approach. Lagta nahin ki achhe din aayenge.
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This story was first published in www.thepoliticalindian.com on June 25, 2014
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