Midnight’s child Sharad Yadav has had a long and chequered political career spanning well over four decades. Through it all, he has carved his own path, breaking even with the likes of Charan Singh. His recent split with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the issue of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has placed him in the spotlight as he seeks once again to try and play a pivotal role in the opposition. Often dismissed as a drawing-room politician operating from the charmed centre of Lutyens’ Delhi, he prefers to be called an all-India politician. In a wide-ranging interview, he talks about Mandal politics, the Socialist movement, why he broke with Mr. Kumar, the state of opposition politics and why preserving India’s composite culture is at the top of his agenda. Excerpts:
On August 17, you organised the Sanjhi Virasat Sammelan that was attended by many opposition parties. How did that happen?
The Preamble to our Constitution is about our sanjhi virasat , our composite culture. Three months ago, the idea for the Sanjhi Virasat Sammelan sprang from a discussion on the current political situation I was having with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. Then there was an all-party meeting in (Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha) Ghulam Nabi Azad’s chamber in which this discussion was taken further. A decision was eventually taken to hold this convention on August 17. I had no idea that so many people would turn up: they came from all over the country, by train, by air, though there were more people who came from the areas surrounding Delhi.
My political temperament from the beginning has been to play a national role. I have never been in State politics. When the National Front was formed, Devi Lal and I played a major role, along with Harkishan Surjeet. V.P. Singh was hesitant. Then we created a situation in which his Jan Morcha too joined.
Right at the start of my political career, I was JP’s “people’s candidate” (from Jabalpur) in 1974. I was always at the Centre, I never went to the States though there were opportunities. During the National Front days, and Ajit Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav were both there, many people suggested I should go to Uttar Pradesh. Mulayam Singh went, I did not. In Bihar, after Karpoori Thakur’s demise, I was running the State unit.
You were kingmaker rather than king…
No one in politics can be a kingmaker if he does not have real influence… No one has made more MPs and MLAs than I have. Who gave tickets to all those who were in the 1974 movement? To Mohan Singh, Harshvardhan, Brij Bhushan Tiwari, Jamuna Prasad Nishad, people from Bihar. Devi Lal was confined to Haryana. I must have made hundreds of MPs and MLAs. I had very good relations with Biju Patnaik.
In 2014, you played a critical role in bringing the opposition together on the Land Acquisition Act and in asking Congress president Sonia Gandhi to lead it.
I did the entire coordination for that — many parties were hesitant to get involved with the Congress, because they have always fought against it. But when the Land Acquisition Bill was introduced, it provided an opportunity. I felt it was very anti-farmer, so I took on the task of coordinating with opposition parties on the issue. A day before we were to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Ghulam Nabi Azad said Sonia Gandhi wants to be part of it. So I said, welcome. It became an all-party march — only two people spoke, Soniaji and I. She spoke briefly, I spoke more. After that, there were no obstacles left in getting the Land Acquisition Bill changed. At that time, I was president of the Janata Dal (United), but ever since I left the position, things changed.
How did things change?
Problems were growing in the JD(U). I would make a statement here and the new president (Nitish Kumar) would contradict it in Bihar. For instance, I opposed demonetisation, but the next day, there was a statement from the party that demonetisation was okay... Then on the presidential election, I was asked to attend the discussions with opposition parties. I attended two meetings. Then there was one meeting in Tamil Nadu which was attended by the Chief Minister (Nitish Kumar) who is also the party president. But as soon as the BJP announced that Ram Nath Kovind was its candidate, the JD(U)’s immediate response (backing him) placed me in an embarrassing position.
Recently, you accompanied senior Congress leaders to Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh to support protesting farmers. But historically, the Socialists and Lohiaites have been strongly opposed to the Congress. What has brought you together now?
This is not a change. We were opposed to the Congress, given the prevailing circumstances of that period. I joined politics during Indira Gandhi’s time. The Congress was a very strong party. My father was a Congressman, the district president of Hoshangabad in M.P. He was with D.P. Mishra, Seth Govind Das… but I came under the influence of Lohiaji. In my university days, I was a part of the political ferment from Patna to Baroda. I had also served the longest jail sentence. Nagbhushan Patnaik and I were jailed in 1971.
Given the current situation, when I look at our Constitution, it is very clear that the path it suggests is the product of the freedom movement. All those I followed — Lohia, JP, Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur — were products of the freedom movement. I was born in 1947.
So this is a kind of ghar wapsi for you?
No, I am only saying my childhood home was a Congress home and still is. Among the values that I imbibed were secularism and a belief in a composite culture that is reflected in the Preamble to the Constitution.
On August 11, at the meeting of opposition parties, Sonia Gandhi was asked to form a small committee that would draw up a plan of action. On August 17, her political secretary, Ahmed Patel, at the Sanjhi Virasat Sammelan exhorted you to set up a committee and draw up a blueprint for the opposition. What’s going on?
Our party was represented at the first meeting by Ali Anwar. The functioning of these 17 political parties is being coordinated by Soniaji — that is her responsibility. But in giving shape to the campaign to preserve our sanjhi virasat , the sky is the limit. There are many agitations on currently — by farmers in distress, by unemployed youth, by Dalits in the wake of the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Una episode in Gujarat, and finally what happened in Saharanpur, against mob lynching. My responsibility is to create a campaign to protect our biggest legacy, our composite culture that is enshrined in our Constitution. The country broke once — we can’t afford to have it happen again. There is no contradiction. I will form a committee on which there will be influential people from all these parties.
Who will lead the opposition? Sonia Gandhi?
Hers is the biggest party in the opposition, describe it anyway you like. It has an all-India base.
Nitish Kumar says he broke the mahagatbandhan because the mandate in Bihar was for the development of the State, not to enrich one family.
The mahagatbandhan was created not by Laluji. It is we in the JD(U) who took the initiative. When it was a question of seeking votes, then joining the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) was right, and now to break it because of an FIR (against Lalu Yadav and his family) is ridiculous. Eleven crore people who knew us and recognised us for what we were voted for us. This was the resurrection of the old Janata Dal, with the Congress standing with us. For one and a half months we all campaigned — that vote was for five years, given to us in trust. Everywhere we had attacked the NDA… Going with the NDA was therefore to break the agreement we had with the people. We had a manifesto; the BJP had its manifesto. How can the two be combined? That’s why I regret this.
Most JD(U) MPs and MLAs are with Nitish Kumar. Even your well-wishers are saying that you have taken an ideologically correct position, but you have made yourself politically irrelevant.
I have fought many such battles in my life. I only want to say wait for a bit. Such things have been said about me in the past, too. I have always been the one to raise critical national issues: do you think it’s possible for me to become irrelevant so soon? I raised the coal scam, the Commonwealth Games scam because of which Suresh Kalmadi had to go to jail. Who raised the Asaram Bapu issue? I am an all-India politician who travels all over the country.
In 2013, when Nitish Kumar broke with the BJP, you urged him to stay on.
At that time, we had a mutually agreed agenda with Atalji and Advaniji. The contested issues — of the Ram Temple, Article 370 and a Uniform Civil Code — were left out. Who made that agenda? George Fernandes, Ramakrishna Hegde and Nitish Kumar and Atalji and Advaniji… If we had not left in 2013, the country would have definitely been saved the current crisis… We would have come out of the NDA now, not then in 2013, and from that would have sprung a big movement against the BJP. It would have been a more politically opportune moment.
You were a Cabinet minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Was the Vajpayee-Advani BJP different from the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah BJP?
There was a national agenda. But the ideology is the same. We have worked with the BJP many times. When we were with Vajpayee and Advani, these three issues were always kept out. Now they are back on the BJP’s agenda.
The Socialists and the Lohiaites have a history of break-ups, mergers and break-ups.
I agree that through their many break-ups, the country has suffered. But through the many battles, from the Quit India movement to the Emergency, they have fought on behalf of the people, they have saved it.
Is the Mandal movement still relevant today?
There will be complete justice in India only when there is social and economic justice for all. Social disparities have been caused by the caste system. From social inequality has sprung economic inequality and all the ills in our society. The biggest battles fought in India have been against social inequality and that is still going on. This battle can’t end till the caste system is eradicated. People in India think on the basis of their caste, even though they may say they don’t believe in caste.
