Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Sunday asked the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar to fulfil the "last wishes" of the former union minister, Raghuwansh Prasad Singh. Singh succumbed to COVID-19 in the ICU of New Delhi AIIMS earlier in the day.
Modi said a void has been created in politics of India and in Bihar.
Modi's directions to Nitish came through video conference. Paying tributes to Raghuwansh Babu, Modi said the former union minister had a development of his constituency in his mind till his death. Two days back, he wrote three letters to the chief minister from his hospital bed requesting measures for the development of Vaishali and welfare of the poor. "He was concerned over the neglect of his constituency till the end. There was a clash in his mind between the current political situation and his ideals too in his mind".
Prime Minister said he would join hands in getting the last wishes of Raghuwansh Babu fulfilled.
The three last wishes of Raghuwansh Babu, according to the three letters written on September 10 from the hospital bed were-amendment through an ordinance in the MGNREGA to allow jobs to common farmers.
The second wish of Raghuwansh Babu was to bring the alms bowl(Bhiksha Patra) of Lord Budha from Kabul Museum (Afghanistan) to Vaishali through the Archaeological Survey of India. He had informed Nitish that the then union external affairs minister, S M Krishna had informed him about it.
The third and last wish of the former MP of Vaishali was -hoisting of national tricolour on Republic Days at Vaishali Garh on January 26 every year. He urged the chief minister to visit Vaishali garh every January 26 for official Republic Day celebrations as Vaishali was the oldest Republic of the world
Raghuwansh babu (74) died at AIIMS earlier in the day. He was admitted there four days back and was on a ventilator. He had submitted his resignation from RJD from the hospital bed reminding Lalu Prasad he was with him since the formation of the party-32 years back. He was upset with the admission of his arch political rival Rama Singh into the party and was ignored by the younger generation in the organisation.
Legacy of Raghuwansh Prasad Singh
The veteran Socialist leader who was MP for four terms, MLA and MLC in Bihar is considered the architect of national rural employment guarantee scheme during Manmohan Singh ministry. He headed the rural development ministry in UPA government. Narendra Modi today recalled his contributions for the scheme and said as chief minister of Gujarat, he had interacted with Raghuwansh Babu several times on welfare projects.
The former teacher of Mathematics was an activist in JP movement and was appointed as the energy minister in 1977 by Karpoori Thakur. Later, he became chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council. Though he was vice-president of RJD, he was recognised as an honest politician and remained untainted when all colleagues of Lalu were found involved in corruption cases.
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, paying his tributes said Raghuwansh babu was the guardian of the family as Lalu Prasad was in jail."It is a loss for the family", he said.
His last letter to Lalu Prasad on September 9 may become a letter bomb against RJD during the coming assembly elections for the NDA leaders. It was full of criticism of Lalu style of working and had commented he found photos of five members of the same family on party posters and slogans. He was referring to Lalu,Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap. He had alleged money was transacted in the distribution of party tickets.
