Ram Vilas Paswan | A towering Dalit leader and tactful politician

In 1977, the year that Jagjivan Ram was sworn in as the Deputy Prime Minister, the highest elected office a Dalit had ever occupied then in the country, 30-year-old Ram Vilas Paswan debuted in the Lok Sabha from Bihar’s Hajipur with the largest ever victory margin up to that point of 424,000 votes.

In the decade after the political star of Ram, who was also from Bihar, had set by early 1980s, Paswan, who passed away on October 8, emerged the most influential Dalit leader across a wide swathe of the Hindi heartland. He won the Lok Sabha elections in 1980 and 1984, and in the 1989 edition broke his own record by securing a victory margin of 505,000 votes.

Like Ram, Paswan turned out to be a rare Dalit leader whose popularity transcended his home state of Bihar to Western Uttar Pradesh and outskirts of Delhi. The Dalit Sena, an organisation floated by his supporters, used to pull off well attended public rallies in western UP.

For a few years, and his supporters believed this fervently as they took to raising the slogan “neeche dharti, upar aasman, har taraf Ram Vilas Paswan” (the earth below, the skies above, Ram Vilas Paswan is everywhere), much seemed within his grasp, especially the chief ministerial chair in Bihar and the role of the key kingmaker in the prevalent coalition politics in Delhi.

Paswan was first elected to the legislative assembly of Bihar in 1969 on the ticket of the Samyukta Socialist Party, a party founded by Ram Manohar Lohia. By the 1980s, he shaped his politics as not just the legatee of Lohia, but also that of BR Ambedkar.

Months before Ambedkar passed away in 1956, Lohia had written to him proposing a meeting, which was to explore the possibility of a political alliance of Scheduled Castes and OBC (Other Backward Castes). It, however, could never come about.

By 1990, Paswan, who was then barely 43, became a key Cabinet minister in the VP Singh government handling the labour and social welfare portfolio. Along with newly-elected chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad respectively, all of whom were in the Janata Dal, the three seemed to together achieve Lohia’s dream.

Paswan had an important role in the VP Singh government conferring the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, on Ambedkar posthumously and declaring his birth anniversary on April 14 as a national holiday.

However, the emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) under Kanshi Ram and Mayawati in the early 1990s in UP meant Paswan was no longer the unchallenged leader of the Dalits in the heartland. He still had tall political stature.

In 1996, Paswan was the Cabinet minister handling the important Railways portfolio in the United Front governments led by HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral. He was also the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha as both Gowda and Gujral were Rajya Sabha members.

As the BSP under Mayawati strengthened in UP, and Lalu Prasad consolidating his support base among the Dalits of Bihar, Paswan’s career not only stagnated, but became a fight for his political survival.

In 1999, Paswan voted against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government on the floor of the House for its “communal politics”. While that government fell after 13 months, Paswan joined the subsequent Vajpayee government. He again quit the government to protest the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The years after this when his party was neither part of the government in Bihar nor at the Centre, persuaded Paswan to revisit his political tactics. He became adept at jumping alliances leading to Lalu Prasad describing him as a “mausam vaigyanik”, someone who can predict political atmosphere and change sides weeks before an election to join the side of the victors.

As Paswan took to aligning with the Rashtriya Janata Dal or Congress, the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar introduced the reservation formula within the Scheduled Castes category of ‘Mahadalits’, which excluded the Paswan (or dusadh) caste.

This further shrunk the electoral support base of Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as a party representing not the entire 16 percent Dalits of Bihar, but only the Paswan community.

With the Bihar Assembly elections around the corner, Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan is preparing to wreak the revenge that his father could not on Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal (United).

In an interesting turn of events, the party of the Paswans is fielding candidates against all JD(U) candidates but not against ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This when the BJP and JD(U) are allies.

Chirag Paswan has already announced that the next government in Patna will be a coalition of the BJP and the LJP, pointedly keeping the JD(U) out of this formula. With Paswan having passed away, the sympathy of voters could help the Chirag-led LJP put up a good show.

Archis Mohan is a senior journalist. Views are personal.