Patna: On 17 January every year, Bihar will hold a state function in honour of Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh for his contributions to India’s freedom struggle, a state cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, decided Wednesday. Some critics, however, have questioned the legitimacy of this decision.
Ram Lakhan Singh is Nitish Kumar’s late father, who worked as a vaidya (practitioner of ayurvedic medicine) in Bakhtiyarpur on the outskirts of Patna district. The CM’s fondness for him is well known.
At a public meeting some years ago, Nitish recounted how as a schoolboy he would sit at his father’s clinic and make pudiyas (bundles) of medicines and aim them at his father’s desk. “My aim in throwing pudiyas is perfect even today,” Nitish had said.
However, according to former Bihar-cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Amitabh Kumar Das, Nitish has missed the mark by declaring that his father was an important freedom fighter.
Das has now written to Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan, asking, “Who is Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh?” and has sought a report from the government about the basis on which the CM’s father was given the status of an important freedom fighter.
Leaders of the Nitish-led Janata Dal (United) have responded that they were “surprised” that Das was questioning Ram Lakhan Singh’s credentials since he was a well-known Congressman in the region.
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‘He is not in history books, did not receive any honours’
Speaking to ThePrint, Amitabh Kumar Das said that celebrating Ram Lakhan Singh as a freedom fighter was a “scam”.
“I have been a student of history and gone through several books, I have even googled. There is no mention of his role in any of the movements during the freedom struggle. He did not receive any honour or pension as a freedom fighter,” Das said Thursday.
“We are celebrating 75 years of our freedom and in the same year he has been declared a freedom fighter. It takes away the sanctity of honouring freedom fighters,” he added.
According to him, the whole issue was a “laughing matter” in the state although very few people dare to oppose Nitish publicly.
In 2018, Das, a 1994-batch IPS officer, was forced to retire for alleged non-performance. He was an inspector general-ranked officer at the time and had a track record of taking on politicians that he alleged were on the wrong side of the law.
In 2003, he accused Nitish Kumar of improprieties while giving out contracts in his stint as Union railway minister, and in 2014 alleged that Union minister Giriraj Singh had links with an outlawed outfit of landlords called the Ranvir Sena. Das was forced to retire in 2018, but has continued to be a vocal critic of government policies.
In April last year, he returned his police medal to the President of India to protest against the Bihar government’s plan to demolish a part of Patna’s Khuda Baksh Oriental public library.
‘He was a freedom fighter, but others more deserving’
What is known about Nitish’s father is that he was a vaidya and a member of the Congress, who at one time nearly got a party ticket. His house is located on the national highway and senior Congress leaders often visited him when passing by. By the time of Ram Lakhan Singh’s death in 1978, Nitish Kumar was already a student leader of the JP agitation.
According to former member of the legislative council (MLC) Ramchandra Bharti, it was “surprising” that Das was questioning the credentials of the CM’s father.
“The late Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh went to jail in 1929, 1942 and 1943 — all in connection with the freedom struggle. He faced torture in jail and his house was bulldozed,” the JD(U) leader said. “His recognition as a freedom fighter has come late because Nitish Kumar is reluctant to promote his own family members. He has finally conceded only due to pressure from the people of Bakhtiyarpur,” Bharti added.
Last year, Bharti, who lives near the CM’s ancestral house in Bakhtiyarpur, was instrumental in getting a statue of Ram Lakhan Singh installed in the area.
There are mixed reactions in the rest of Bihar’s political circles about the decision to have annual functions to honour Ram Lakhan Singh as a freedom fighter.
Prem Kumar Mani, a former member of the legislative council (MLC) who switched to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from the JD(U) and was once a close aide of Nitish, said the move was not timed well.
“There should be no doubt about Nitish’s father being a freedom fighter. He was a good man who treated the downtrodden sections free of cost. But, this step should not have been taken when Nitish is the chief minister,” Mani told ThePrint.
A BJP MLA who did not want to be identified made a similar point. “Nitish’s father was a freedom fighter. But, at that time, there were so many who participated in the freedom fight across Bihar. Many were more deserving,” he said.
So far, the CM has been paying his respects at statues of his late father, mother, and wife in his native village Kalyanbigha in Nalanda district, on their birth and death anniversaries. With this cabinet decision, Nitish and his followers will offer floral tributes at a state function in Patna on Ram Lakhan Singh’s birth anniversary every year.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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