Rahul Gandhi needs to reverse the perception that he is 'incompetent', says Chirag Paswan
New Delhi: Chirag Paswan is one of the youngest members of the newly elected Lok Sabha. He tried his luck in Bollywood but quickly realized that he is actually made for the tough terrain of
Q: Coming to politics of Bihar, how do you look at the changes that have taken place recently. Nitish Kumar has resigned; Jitan ram manjhi has taken over as the new CM.
Chirag: For Bihar, there can be no bigger tragedy than this. When the flood water comes, snakes and scorpions, they all sit on the same branch of a tree. Congress, RJD and JD(U) are all sitting on the same branch. In the next assembly elections, the first casualty will be this branch. The Lok Sabha results clearly show that the people have rejected these parties. As far as JD(U) is concerned, they could barely open their account in these elections. They got the second seat by cheating. In Nalanda Lok Sabha constituency, our candidate had won but they got that seat by cheating. We are going to take leagal action on that. The reality is that even they realize that their support base is no longer with them. That's why they are looking at running the state government somehow. They think that will be wiped out if elections are held right now. But the reality is that whenever elections take place, NDA will form the govt in Bihar, the way we have formed the govt at centre.
Q: Nitish Kumar has recently termed Ram Vilas Paswan as a ‘palatimar leader' (a leader who always takes U-turn). How would you react to that?
Chirag: Just a few weeks before we joined hands with BJP, it was the same Nitish Kumar who used to say that he had very good relationship with Ram Vilas Paswan and that he wanted to make him the Chief Minister in 2005. At that time he was trying to win over our national president for joining hands in Lok Sabha elections. We would have been good had we joined hands with him. Since we did not join hands with him, no other party can be as bad as our party and no other leader can be as bad as our national president Ramvilas Paswan. It's just his frustration coming out since his and his party's political decline has begun.
Q: In 2005, Ram Vilas Paswan had insisted on a Muslim Chief Minister in Bihar when he himself was being offered the CM post. As a young leader with a new vision, do you think it was wrong on his part to insist on this? Was this demand not communal?
Chirag: No, it was not wrong at all. At that time, there was a deadlock. We had moved out of an alliance and had fought against one party. The question was who to go with? It was a very difficult situation. As you know, a formula is drafted everywhere. For example, even in NDA, formulas are drafted to form council of ministers. So at that time, we also came up with a formula that we'll go with anybody who supports our demand for a Muslim Chief Minister.
As for communalism, who is talking about communal and secular these days? If we talk about encouraging a section, we become communal. But when others form equations like M-Y, it becomes secular. There are others who change Dalits into Mahadalits, backwards into extremely backwards then that is not caste politics. Nitish has tried to play Dalit card by making Manjhi CM in Bihar. When they do it, it's secular thought. When we do it, it becomes communal thought. Those who talk the most about Muslims today rejected the proposal.
As for Nitish, BJP was secular for 17 years, now that his own personal interests have taken precedence; BJP has once again become communal. As far as Lalu is concerned, why did he form his first govt with BJP support if BJP was so communal?
Q: Coming to criminalization of politics, there is a perception that LJP has inducted many people against whom serious cases are pending. What are you doing to change this perception?
Chirag: I am not aware of what perception has been formed of my party. But yes, I will try to make sure that more and more leaders with clean image join LJP. One reason why I decided against going with the previous alliance was that I did not want to join hands with a party whose national president was convicted by a court. That combination was not getting fitted into my campaign against corruption.
As far as my party is concerned, there is not a single person, who has either won or had contested on our party symbol, against whom even a single case is going on today. I am not aware of a person's history but I can say that from the day they have joined LJP, there is not a single case filed against them.