Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who recently resigned from the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), succumbed to post-Covid illness at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Sunday.
Singh was suffering from a lung infection and was put on ventilator two days ago after his health deteriorated. He was admitted in the ICU unit of the hospital a week ago after contracting an infection in his lungs, a post-Covid illness he developed after contracting the Covid-19 disease.
Singh had tested positive with the Covid-19 in June and was treated at AIIMS, Patna. The 74-year-old leader had resigned from the RJD a few days ago. He had written a series of letters to various politicians while undergoing treatment at AIIMS, Delhi. In one of his letters, circulated in the media, Singh had flayed the culture of dynastic politics and taken indirect potshots at family-rule in the RJD.
The man behind the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Singh’s demise comes close on the heels of his unexpected exit from RJD, a party he served for the better part of his political life. In his handwritten resignation to Lalu Prasad, he said, “I kept standing behind you for 32 years after the demise of Karpuri Thakur, but not any longer.”
He was believed to be angry over talks about former MP Rama Singh’s entry into the RJD. In what can be seen as a longstanding relationship of camaraderie, Lalu told him, “First you get better, then we will sit and talk. You are not going anywhere.”
The five-term Lok Sabha MP representing Vaishali died at the age of 74, bringing an end to a long era where he espoused the cause of social justice. The man who was once part of Karpuri Thakur’s Cabinet later stood by Lalu Prasad, even when the latter was prosecuted for charges of corruption in the fodder scam. He also stood by the Yadav family when Rabri Devi was steering the Bihar government in the absence of her husband.
A well read and well educated man who was known for his simplicity, Singh’s socialist bent made him well respected not just in the RJD but by leaders of all political parties riding on the promise of social justice. However, the legacy of this mathematician would be steering the UPA-era flagship MGNREGA scheme, a social security scheme that guarantees the “right to work”.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 is seen as one of the main reasons apart from UPA’s civil nuclear deal with the US that swept the alliance back to power consecutively for a second time in 2009.
He spoke his mind, did not mince words and had even questioned the government he was a part of. A rarity, Singh’s political legacy is so powerful and deep, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to start Sunday’s virtual inauguration of three petro projects for Bihar by paying homage to him, calling him “a person who understood poverty”, even before the customary protocols of addressing the Bihar Governor or Chief Minister at the event.
When PM Modi urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to “jointly fulfill” development requests made by Singh in his last letter to Nitish, it was a testament to the sway the Rajput leader held in Bihar’s polity.
With inputs from IANS