Purnea (Bihar), Sep 21 : Union minister Chirag Paswan on Sunday claimed that his late father Ram Vilas Paswan deserved the credit for the poor getting five kg of ration every month and mobile phones “getting cheap like eggplants”.
The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president made the averment in Purnea district of Bihar, at a rally organised by the party with the title ‘Nav Sankalp Sabha’ (conference for a new resolve).
The Hajipur MP said, “I feel proud to be the progeny of a leader who did whatever he could for Bihar and its people, during his various assignments at the Centre. I also feel proud that it was his vision that has resulted in 81 crore people of the country getting free food”.
Paswan was referring to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana which was first rolled out during the COVID19 pandemic of 2020, when his late father was the Union minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
He also spoke of his father’s earlier tenure as the Union minister for Communications and Information Technology, in the government headed by late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“Today, I feel proud to see every youngster carrying a mobile handset. This has also been possible because of the vision of my father, my idol, who had dreamt of phones becoming as cheap as eggplants (bangan ke bhav)”, said Paswan.
The NDA partner urged the people to vote for the coalition helmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in the upcoming assembly polls “without getting divided along religious and caste lines”.
“If there is one real divide in the country, it is between the rich and the poor. It is a chasm that seems to be growing wider and deeper. My party’s motto of Bihar First, Bihari First is aimed at bridging the gap”, said the Union minister.
He also lambasted the RJD, which leads the INDIA bloc in the state, for “wearing like a badge of honour” the “MY” (Muslim-Yadav) combine, which smacked of “casteism and communalism”.
“We shall defeat them with our own MY combine, which stands for women (mahila) and the youth (yuva)”, said Paswan. The LJP(RV) president began his speech by paying tributes to former Bihar Chief Minister Bhola Paswan Shastri on his birth anniversary.
A Congressman all through his life, Shastri became the first Dalit to occupy the highest seat of power in the state in the early 1970s, and was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha during the Janata Party rule.
The late Ram Vilas Paswan was then a Janata Party MP from Hajipur. (PTI)
