Bihar’s Next Chief Minister Should be a Dalit, says Sanjay Paswan

By Team BiharConnect

Senior BJP Leader and Former Union Minister Dr Sanjay Paswan said on Thursday that the next chief minister of Bihar should be from Dalit community. Addressing Bihar Development Dialogue organised by BiharConnect, Paswan, who is also a member of Bihar’s Legislative Council, said it is the “aspiration” of the Dalit Society to see a natural CM from the community.

He pointed out that there have been three chief ministers from the Dalit community in Bihar so far, but none of them had acquired the position in a natural manner.

“Till now Dalits have been made chief minister of Bihar like cricket’s night watchman,” said Paswan alluding how the Dalit leaders like Jitan Ram Manjhi, Ram Sundar Das and Bhola Paswan Shastri were installed in the position just to keep the chair warm till the warring factions settle their issues and acquired the chair again.

“Bhola Paswan Shastri became chief minister because of the fight between Bhumihars and Rajputs. Ram Sundar Das became CM because of the fight between backward and forward. Jitan Ram Manjhi became CM at a time when JDU was under attack. In those days JDU was in a lot of problems. These people were put in the position as a crisis manager,” he said.

“Now the time has come to have a Swablambi (self-reliant) Dalit CM in Bihar. The atmosphere is favourable for it. All the parties should work in this direction,” Paswan added without taking name of any particular party.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition in Bihar consists of Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United), Bharatiya Janata Party and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party. Barring a short stint of Jitna Ram Manjhi, Nitish Kumar, a backward leader, has been the chief minister of Bihar since 2005. Before Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi ruled the state for 15 years. So leaders from backward community have been ruling Bihar for the past 30 years.

Paswan, who served as a Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Social Justice and Empowerment and IT and Telecommunications in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said now the time has come that the leadership of the state is passed on to Dalit community as it was done from forward to backward community.

“If the stream of social justice is to be taken forward in the true sense, then the way the backward took from the upper castes, now the Dalits should take over from the backwards.”

“If the stream of social justice is to be taken forward in the true sense, then the way the backward took from the upper castes, now the Dalits should take over from the backwards. This is the need of the day and this is also the natural path of politics – from upper castes to the backward community and now from backward to Dalit community,” Paswan said.

“It is our aspiration to have a Dalit CM in Bihar through a natural course,” he added.

Paswan said the issues of migrant labourers and unemployment would be among the major factors in the upcoming general election for Bihar Legislative Assembly. The term of the current legislative assembly of Bihar expires on 29th November 2020,

He claimed that around 50 lakh workers have returned to Bihar since the imposition of lockdown in the last week of March to control Covid-19 outbreak.

“The official estimate is of around 30 lakh. A large number of people have come on their own. Many came by bicycle, rickshaw, auto and even on foot. My guess is around 50 lakh workers have returned to Bihar,” said Paswan.

Replying to a question on the need for a creamy layer in reservation for Scheduled Castes, Paswan said there was a need to overhaul the system of reservation. He said nobody should be allowed to avail reservation for the fourth time.

“There should be the principle of no more four. If three generations of a family has taken the benefits of the reservation, it should not be given to the fourth and the subsequent generation. This rule should apply in politics, jobs and all other fields,” he said.

So far, 23 people have occupied the chair of chief minister of Bihar. Several of them served for multiple terms. For example, the first Dalit chief minister of the state Bhola Paswan Shastri took oath thrice but his tenure were only in days and months. Shastri’s first term as chief minister lasted for just over three months from 22 March 1968 to 29 June 1968. His second term was just for 13 days from 22 June 1969 to 4 July 1969. He became chief minister for the third time in 1971. Although that tenure was comparatively longer but did not last for a year. His third term was from 2 June 1971 to 9 January 1972.

In the past 74 years chief ministers in Bihar have changed 33 times. Apart from this President’s Rules have been imposed in Bihar 7 times so far. The shortest tenure as chief minister of Bihar was of Satish Prasad Singh, who occupied the chair just for five days from 28 January 1968 to 1 February 1968.

List of Chief Minister of Bihar

President’s Rules have been imposed in Bihar 7 times so far