EX-LEGISLATOR DIES IN PENURY, CREMATED UNSUNG
LUCKNOW: Felicitated only months ago during the 125th anniversary celebrations of the state assembly, two-time former legislator Bhagvati Prasad was cremated on Thursday with just a handful in attendance. No official represented the state government. Even wood for the last rites was not available as the family of the late Jana Sangh legislator -- who was respected for his honesty -- is battling penury.
His sons and family had to pick up wood pieces from the roadside and cut some dead trees on the Madar-Ikauna road to set the funeral pyre. Asked to comment, district officials said they were busy and that a Nayab Tehsildar was sent after the funeral to ‘gather a report’. For a man who was in the legislative assembly twice, in 1967 and 1969, representing Ikauna in Bahraich district, death could not have come as a bigger humiliation. The two legislators who now represent the now bifurcated Ikauna, Indrani Devi from Bhinga and Mohammad Ramzan from Shrawasti, were also absent at the cremation. They read about the death in newspapers.
Bhagvati Prasad was revered for his honesty and simple living. Surviving on frugal monthly pension as a former legislator, he even sold peanuts and tea in the last few years to make two ends meet.
“My father never lost his self respect and told us to work hard and not to be disheartened by tough times,” his elder son Radhe Shyam told IANS. He said his father fought the first assembly election with Rs 1600. “To get that money, my father sold a buffalo for Rs 1800 and kept Rs 200 for the family.” Earlier, Bhagvati Prasad was spotted lying on the floor outside the district hospital in Bahraich awaiting attention of doctors. With great difficulty and after a lot of persuasion, the dying man got a bed at the hospital. But treatment never came his way, his family said. Death came late Wednesday.
“No one recognized him, no one came forward to help, and doctors would not listen to our pleas that treatment was falling short despite his serious condition,” Radhe Shyam said.