At the end of a long and tiring day of campaigning, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav speaks at his Patna residence on absence of his father Lalu Prasad Yadav, the delay in finalising the opposition alliance and Modi government’s stand on reservation.
This is the first general elections where your father Lalu Prasad is not present. How is his absence affecting the RJD?
His absence has fuelled anger among the people. The people of Bihar are angry at those who are responsible for his absence. If you join with BJP, it’s all okay, you can do nothing wrong. All the cases and allegations against you are erased. There are so many cases against the Nitish Kumar government — from Srijan Scam to sexual harassment of inmates Muzaffarpur home shelter. Nitish Kumar ji took a u-turn out of fear of these cases. And as soon as he joined hands with BJP, all cases against him and his people were dropped or investigations into them slowed down. We do feel Lalu ji ‘s absence. But he is not just a name, he is an ideology.
It took a long time to iron out differences within the Mahagatbandhan. Was the Congress responsible for the delay?
Our alliance has many parties and many of them broke away from NDA to join us. We are happy that our family has expanded and the NDA is fighting with fewer allies. Yes, there was delay but we have come together strongly. Anyway, was there ever a timetable (to) declare the candidates after sealing the alliance?. The NDA themselves took many months after announcing the seat sharing announcement. Now the candidate for Sitamarhi has returned his ticket. Didn’t Chirag Paswan tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on GST/demonetisation and so on? So in fact a more public tussle is going on there.
But what about Congress’s role?
Each party would want to contest on maximum number of seats. But the alliance also has to look at winnability factor. Last time we fought on 27 seats in alliance with Congress who fought on 12. (This time) We came down to 19 and they came down to nine to accommodate the other allies. Ultimately everyone got the justified number of seats.
People are questioning whether there will be an actual transfer of vote between the allies?
The mahagatbandhan has many parties and people from different walks of life. To those who are questioning whether there will be a vote transfer between our allies should also question the difference within NDA in Bihar. On April 2, at Narendra Modi’s rally here, the BJP annd JD (U) workers were openly fighting (at Gaya). It hardly matters if the leaders work together but the workers should get along for an alliance to work. In our alliance, all the parties come from similar ideologies. And can anyone give a guarantee for Nitishji — that he will not switch again?
The BJP is once again trying to pare down the election to Hindu-Muslim binary and nationalism. Will it then be a repeat of 2014?
We are not going to respond to the agenda set by them. This election is not about Modi, it is about mudda (issues). Unemployment rate is the highest under Modi-government; there are 22-lakh vacancies in government; what about their ₹15 lakh jumla? They have been promising special status to Bihar and there will (be) double engine of growth. Modi promised that Gaya will get more tourists than Taj Mahal... have they fulfilled any of their promises?
If you come down to issues, the BJP has no answers. Which is why they are back to raking up their old agenda, Hindu-Muslim, Pakistan, Kashmir, mandir-masjid. But I am confident that the voters can see through this. The rhetoric will not feed or educate people. If he claims to be chowkidar, then the Indian voter is thanedaar (inspector). And if he fails in his "chowkidaari" then the voters shall punish them (him). And anyway chowkidar hi chor hai . We have tabled the evidence regarding Srijan scam in Bihar Assembly, including bank statement of Sushil Modi’s [Deputy CM] sister showing questionable transactions, but why no action was taken? Because the chowkidar the person who is supposed to guard is the thief.
So you are saying that Balakote (its Balakot) strikes will have no impact?
Tell me something — before Modi ji became Prime Minister, was the Indian army useless and did it become efficient only because of him? Will the Indian Army become a lame duck when he is no longer in the chair? The Balakot strikes are an achievement of our Indian armed forces. It is demeaning to politicize the armed forces; to use their achievement as political slogan — Modi ji hai toh mumkin hai ( everything is possile because of Modi ) . Modi ji brands opposition leaders as agents of the Pakistan government. But remember we were not the ones who went to Pakistan carrying a shawl, or flew there uninvited to have biryani or invited an ISI team to the Pathankot airbase after the shameful attack.
The Modi government is trying to strike a caste balance by maintaining status quo of the SC/ ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and now by introducing law for reservation for the economically weaker sections..
The Narendra Modi government wanted to scrap the SC/ ST atrocities act. Otherwise why would the Attorney General send a junior lawyer to Supreme Court? They were forced to retain the status quo because of protests from Dalits across the country. We are not against any forward caste. But how can you bring such a law without doing a basic survey or study? Now reservation is being extended to those who own up to five acres of land, who pay income tax... the move is for the rich among the forward caste.
Significantly, reservation is not a poverty alleviation measure, it is a question of representation. Reservation is not a MNREGA scheme. The law is merely to con every one. If they want to end poverty then why not the long promises ₹15 lakh into every one’s accounts, or deliver on promises of two crore jobs annually?
Your brother has struck out on his own with Lalu-Rabri Morcha. Won’t this affect the party?
In democracy every one has the right to express their opinion. This is our household matter and I never comment on this.
It is being said RJD denied ticket to the CPI for fearing Kanhaiya Kumar’s growing national stature?
I have always shared stage with Kanhaiya Kumar. We too have a party, we have compromised so much. In 2014, CPI fought with JD(U) — they got one lakh vote, while our candidate Tanveer Hassan got 4.5 lakh votes. And across the country, there are very few seats where minority candidates can contest from. He is a winning candidate. Mine and Kanhaiya Kumar's aim is to defeat the BJP.
In a post-poll scenario is the RJD prepared to work under the Congress leadership?.
Congress is the biggest opposition party and they are contesting every where in the country. Rahul Gandhi has led Congress to victory in three States and he fulfilled the promise of farm loan waiver. The recent announcement of NYAY-income guarantee scheme is brilliant and it will benefit the backward classes in Bihar the most. Mr Gandhi has a long experience of working as a multi-term Parliamentarian and leading the grand old party. What was Narendra Modi’s experience before becoming Gujarat Chief Minister ?. The RJD is with UPA and we want all our allies to perform exemplary in this election.
