50 YEARS LATER, POLITICS STILL LEFT IN ME: PASWAN

NEWDELHI: The young man, all of 22 years old, had just returned to his village, Shaharbanni in Khagadia district, after clearing the civil service examination in 1968 to attend family celebrations. He was selected for the Bihar police. At village roundabout he found a Dalit man, limbs tied, facing the local panchayat in front of a hundred people.

The charge: the man hadn’t returned ~150 he owed to his master for medical treatment. A young “police officer in waiting”, Paswan got the man released. He tore the accounts book that the complainant had brought along as evidence, and dispersed the crowd.

The young man became a local hero. Not long after, his community convinced him to contest the elections and gave him a ticket from the Samyukt Socialist Party for a by-election from Aloli in 1969. This was his first election and he defeated a Congress heavyweight with a margin of 700-odd votes.

That’s how the life of Ram Vilas Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party chief who has completed 50 years in legislative politics, changed.

“My father was upset at the thought of me leaving police service,” Paswan chuckles

“I consulted a colleague from the Socialist Party who told me ‘If you want to be government then become an MLA. If you want to be servant then join the police force’. I decided to be the government,” the union minister remembers.

The 72-year-old socialist veteran believes he has enough “politics” still left in him.

“There is no end to politics for a politician,” says Paswan. “Any alliance government has its bounds and limitations, which stops one from speaking freely... But we do speak when there is an occasion.” Paswan represents Hajipur, a seat next to state capital Patna, in Lok Sabha.