Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan believes that the presence of the Congress in the fray will make little difference to the outcome of the Assembly polls in Bihar in November. In an interview, he says that Bihar’s “treasury scam” must be investigated by the CBI as top people are involved and the sums in question are “astronomical”.
Q. Will the current Opposition unity against the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar translate into joint campaigning against the NDA in the Assembly polls, or even electoral alliances?
A. Most unlikely. Every party has its own agenda, but every party got together to protest the dictatorship unleashed by Nitish Kumar. The NDA will certainly have to pay the price for its corruption as highlighted in the CAG report, and for the brutal manner of repression it used against the Opposition. The people are watching and weighing just before the polls. The election results will open the eyes of the whole country.
Q. The Congress kept its distance from both RJD and LJP in the course of the recent protests against the government following the CAG strictures, and the high court seeking a CBI enquiry. It met the governor separately. What difference will it make to the poll results if the Congress does not align with the RJD-LJP like in the 2005 Assembly election?
A. The RJD-LJP alliance is working to gain power in Bihar while the Congress is working to only increase its vote base in the state. Therefore, its presence will make little difference to the result of the November polls. The party has neither real ambition nor commitment to Bihar nor a solid strategy.
Q. What about your prime ministerial dreams vis-à-vis those of the dalit icon Mayawati?
A. My dreams are alive and intact. India’s people, especially the dalits, know the crucial difference between Mayawati and me. I am a self-made man and leader who grew in politics through constant people’s struggles over several decades, while Mayawati was made by Kanshi Ram. She subsequently engaged in systematic dilution of all his ideologies. The new awakening among India’s dalits makes this difference between Mayawati and me more pronounced and promising.
Q. Why do you insist the CAG findings are a scam when the report does not say so. The JD(U)-BJP government claims the alleged irregularities of `11,412 crore are only about delayed submission of bills?
A. Despite the LJP and the RJD having frequently raised instances of severe misuse of public funds and resources in virtually every welfare scheme in Bihar since the beginning of the Nitish Kumar government, little attention was paid to these lapses in the glow of the chief minister’s “Vikas Purush” image. The CAG report — with details of massive financial irregularities — was tabled in the Assembly on July 14, 2009, but there was no visible action by the government. Why would the government keep quiet for so long if it were not a scam? Even the high court realised the need for a CBI probe. The government is now afraid of a CBI probe simply because the treasury scam is a huge siphoning of public funds masterminded by its ministers and bureaucrats.
Q. There is now reportedly a rush for submitting the bills for the funds purportedly used for the welfare schemes mentioned in the CAG report.
A. These are going to be all fake bills and we would seek a CBI probe into that too. This new “bills scam” in the making is going to be of the nature of the `1,000-crore fodder scam of the past, only a dozen times bigger. Now there is no way the Nitish government can fool the people, the Opposition and the judiciary. The NDA government’s accelerated crumbling is gathering speed.
Q. Why do you blame only the Nitish Kumar government and seek its dismissal when three fiscal years of the so-called scam that you are protesting against were during the term of the previous government of your ally RJD?
A. I am neither blaming nor exonerating the previous government, but it was the Nitish government’s duty to probe the irregularities highlighted in the CAG report both during and before its term. The government instead adopted incriminatory silence in an obvious effort to conceal its own massive wrongdoing and tried to viciously browbeat the Opposition parties after the court asked for a CBI probe. A government that used the brute power of the majority to kill democratic values must be dismissed immediately.
Q. Why do you disagree with the idea of a probe by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Assembly into the CAG report disclosures before any outside agency comes into play?
A. The nature of the irregularities is so deplorable, and the amount misappropriated so high, that even the high court felt the need to hand over the probe to the CBI. I never disagreed with first having the PAC probe, but the Nitish government’s consistent efforts to sweep all charges under the carpet, choke the Opposition’s voice, and resist any probe by an outside agency, have led to the call for a CBI probe to nail the culprits.
Q. The LJP and the RJD are allies, yet only the LJP legislators have resigned. They have submitted their resignation to you rather than to the Assembly Speaker. Why?
A. We are allies, but we are also two different parties with our own ideologies and agendas. It is up to the RJD to decide its course of action to protest. The resignation letters of the LJP legislators, submitted to me as party chief, are all addressed to the Speaker.
Q. You frequently mention the fodder scam while attacking Nitish Kumar over the so-called treasury scam, but your ally Lalu Prasad Yadav remains a prime accused in the fodder scam.
A. The two scams have many similarities. But while it was Laluji’s opponents like Sushil Kumar Modi and Shivanand Tiwary who approached the court in the fodder scam, it is the CAG highlighting the treasury scam and the high court asking for a CBI probe due to the astronomically large sums of public money involved and several top people. Besides, Laluji has consistently been acquitted by the courts.