The demise of Sushil Kumar Modi marks the end of an era for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sushil ji, as he was called in Bihar’s political circles, represented the party’s values in the context of the state that Atal Bihari Vajpayee did at the national level.
In the last 40 years, the BJP has undergone key changes in its strategy and leadership. In the wake of its debacle in the 1984 general elections, the party weaned itself from the influence of Jayaprakash Narayan’s version of socialism which Vajpayee had been charmed with.
After 1984, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ideological parent of the BJP – passed the baton of the party to Lal Krishna Advani. Advani conceptualised the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He involved the ubiquitous wings of the RSS to this end and the movement effectively morphed the BJP into a Hindutva party. Fast forward t0 2014, Advani’s protégée, Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister. The party is now subservient to Modi’s brand of Hindutva which has shown unabashed hostility for minorities. The demolition of the Babri Masjid made way for the Ram Temple and the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant got shriller.
Vajpayee who was prime minister from 1998 to 2004, and then lived in prolonged illness till he died in August 2018, cut a picture of contrast with his values.
In the manner of Vajpayee
Sushil Kumar Modi lived and acted exactly in the manner of Vajpayee.
Few people know that another veteran, Giriraj Singh, owes his existence in the BJP to Sushil Modi. Giriraj and several of Sushil’s protégées have identified themselves with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, attacking Muslims and asking them to go to Pakistan.
Even as most of his former protégées in Bihar adopted radical Hindutva, Sushil did not. Though dyed in the wool of the RSS’s philosophy and having led the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for years as its top office bearer prior to debuting in the legislative politics in 1990, Sushil never personally resorted to an anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Married to Jessie George, his Malayali Christian classmate, Sushil, who graduated with honours in botany from the Patna Science College, celebrated Christmas and Easter at home, and threw Iftar parties, wearing, a gol topi and green shawl every Ramzan. He was, likewise, a frequent guest at Muslim social functions.
Like Vajpayee, who was believed to enjoy the goodwill of Muslims in his Lucknow parliamentary constituency, Sushil enjoyed the same in the Patna Central assembly constituency. But unlike Vajpayee who suffered occasional defeats at the hustings, Sushil never suffered an electoral defeat in his long legislative career.
He made his debut in the Bihar assembly in 1990 by winning the Patna Central seat. He kept on winning it successively till he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur in 2004. Then, he left his post as an MP to get elected as the member of the Legislative Council to join as deputy chief minister of the Nitish Kumar government in 2005.
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Mandal politics and Sushil
Few leaders can match Sushil’s acceptance across the political spectrum. Be it the Congress people, communists or socialists, Sushil had friends in all the parties. He was equally friendly with the journalists and writers. Ironically, he began his career as a student activist with Lalu Prasad Yadav at Patna University in early 1970s.
He was elected as a secretary of the same students’ union of which Lalu was the general secretary. They were friends in what is known as the JP movement. Like Lalu, Sushil was booked under the Maintenance of Security Act (MISA) and stayed in jail for years during the movement against the Indira Gandhi government.
But in due course of time, Sushil emerged as the fiercest opponent of Lalu. Few have been as strident in their attack on Lalu as Sushil was. Sushil left no opportunity to criticise Lalu ever. In fact, it was Sushil who first picked up the word “jungle raaj” from the Patna high court’s verbal observation on civic issues in 1998 and popularised it as a “synonym” to the Lalu-Rabri regime. This phrase was quickly borrowed by others.
But Sushil enjoyed a uniquely personal bond with Lalu which manifested in Lalu’s emotional words after Sushil made it public that he was suffering from cancer in April. “It is hard to bear with the loss of a loving brother. Sushi is a friend for 50 years,” Lalu said.
Again it’s ironic that Sushil considered another socialist, Karpoori Thakur, as his idol. “I have leant the art of politics as an opposition leader from Karpoori Thakur. Karpoori ji was so right with facts and figures and so forceful in driving his point home. I idealise Thakur,” Sushil had said in the course of an elaborate conversation with this writer in 1994.
Even when RSS cadres hit the streets against the implementation of the Mandal Commission report in 1991, Sushil firmly supported it, carving out a soft corner among the traditional business castes who were beneficiaries of the report in rural Bihar. He was born and brought up in a reasonably elite business family of Patna but he remained down to earth all through his life.
He was an architect of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a trusted link between Nitish Kumar and the BJP’s central leadership before the emergence of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah era. Sushil Modi along with Shivaraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan are among those who fell victim to the Modi-Shah plan to downsize the party’s regional leaders and centralise power.
Stripped off his position as the Bihar deputy chief minister, he was sent to the Rajya Sabha in 2020. His tenure in the Upper House ended in April this year. Vajpayee had graced Sushil and Jessie George’s wedding in 1986 describing it as a “mingling of north and south”. Narendra Modi, it is said, had avoided calling on Sushil during his ailment despite visiting Bihar several times to seek votes.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author, media educator and independent researcher in folklore.
