Dr Manoj Jha, Rajya Sabha member from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), talks about the the terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, that led to an almost 80-hour-long military showdown between India and Pakistan, and ceasefire that followed, as well Bihar Assembly elections to be held later this year and caste census.
Elections are due in Bihar. Recently, we saw the Pahalgam terror attack, war-like situation between India and Pakistan, ceasefire and then BJP’s Tiranga Yatras. How do you view the entire sequence of events?
My request is to not allow our politics to plumb such low depths. The war-like situation was for the entire nation. Whether you are from the ruling party or the opposition, it did not matter. The pain of Pahalgam, the pain of the families of the victims – it became the pain of the entire nation. This pain spurred our valiant armed forces to destroy the petri dishes of terror. Doing politics on the matter upsets me, makes me feel uneasy. There are many issues to do politics on. Employment is a big issue, then, there are questions of jobs, migration and better health facilities. The way our valiant armed forces avenged the pain of Pahalgam cannot be an issue for party politics. In 1971, a new nation, Bangladesh, came into being. The credit for that cannot be given to Indira [Gandhi] ji. We were facing a crisis and our forces, with their courage and valour, dealt with the crisis, took it to its logical conclusion. So, what I want to say is that our country’s politics is mature. As for the Tiranga Yatra, only yesterday I had said that our armed forces have not disappointed us, saddened us. In fact, we can hold our heads high with pride. This is a balm for the pain of Pahalgam, it is like wiping tears of the families of those killed. But we saw that the top leadership did not respond the way it should have to what the US President has been saying.
Only yesterday, while responding to a question, I had told a TV channel that the honourable Prime Minister should take all the MPs to Washington DC. We should take out a Tiranga Yatra there so that the US President will at least get to learn a thing or two about the history of India, our heritage, our concerns and our commitments. By saying what he has been saying, he has lowered the honour of the Tiranga [tricolour flag]. So, we need to take out a Tiranga Yatra [tricolour flag march] in Washington. Of course, you can take out a Tiranga Yatra here in India, too. Tiranga is everywhere in India, in every particle, in the heart of every Indian. But still, if you do want to take out a Tiranga Yatra, then it should be taken out jointly. Just as we all, the entire country, felt the pain of Pahalgam, just as we all hailed Operation Sindoor, similarly, we all should have taken out a joint Tiranga Yatra. The BJP taking out Tiranga Yatra, the Congress taking out Jai Hind Yatra, the RJD saying ‘Salaam Hindustan, Pranam Hindustan’ and so on – it is not good. It would have been better had we all carried the Tiranga in our hands, in our hearts, in our feelings. Come, let us march together.
US President Donald Trump has said that he forced India and Pakistan to agree for a ceasefire by using trade as a carrot and a stick. Your take?
I have made two points in the answer to your first question. In the entire sequence of events, two things make me – and crores of other Indians – rather uneasy. The first are the statements by American President Donald Trump which are not only absurd but also baseless and unsubstantiated. Let us see the timeline. The day on which the ceasefire was agreed to, American President made it public almost fifty minutes before we announced it officially. The next morning he said something about Kashmir which was not acceptable to us in the past and which is not acceptable to us today. Then, on the third day, minutes before our honourable Prime Minister was to address the nation he came out with a statement that he used trade as an incentive to make the two countries fall in line. He hyphenated India and Pakistan. On the fourth day, he travels to Saudi Arabia where he repeats the same thing. That is why I say that under the leadership of the honourable Prime Minister, the entire Parliament should send out a message to the US President. As far as I understand this country, I don’t think any trader will trade India’s honour for business. No one will do it. But this rebuttal – it cannot be done by the opposition. The government will have to step forward. Our Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement. I felt good. But just take note – the American President himself is saying these things. Not even Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the President himself. So, the rebuttal should come from our Prime Minister. What Trump has said should be contradicted by our honourable Prime Minister. And it should be done without any delay. This is not about the government or about ruling or opposition parties. It is an issue that is beyond and above parties. Whether our party is there or not this country will live on, its dignity and respect will live on. A joint message should go to the American President.

So, like the Congress you also want a special session of Parliament convened?
Our party was the first to raise this demand. You can verify this. We were the first to write a letter to the government. Then, the CPI wrote and then many other parties made the same demand. So this is something all parties want. If you ask the BJP MPs off the record, they, too, will say that we all should sit together and talk about things that are making all of us uneasy. The country was united in sharing the pain of Pahalgam. The country was one during Operation Sindoor. But I think that if the US President’s claims are not rejected soon, then … And the second thing I want to say is that our friends in the world should stand by us in our difficult times, they should say it in so many words. We will have to take diplomatic and political initiatives in this regard.
The Government of India has said that it has decided to get a caste census done. Your party has been demanding it for a long time. But the government is yet to come out with a timeline. Will your party launch a movement demanding firm dates?
You see, I am repeating what my party and I have said earlier. Our party is in alert mode. The day the caste census was announced we felt we had won our first battle, reached our first milestone. I am calling it a milestone because the announcement revealed there has been a change in the government’s stand on the concerns of the Bahujan – on what the Prime Minister and his entire team have described in the past as the poison of casteism. He has probably realized that it is not poison. In fact, it will produce an elixir for the country. But mere announcement is not enough. Tejashwi ji has said in press conferences more than once that we will be alert and that we will keep an eye on what kind of anthropological and sociological inputs are being sought and given, how counting is being done, how classification is being done and so on. And once the data is available, then, on the basis of that, the reservation quota will have to be increased. Then, there are more issues – adding provisions relating to reservations to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, implementing other recommendations of the Mandal Commission and reservations in the private sector, which has been a sacred cow for a long time. Then, there is the issue of proportional representation in Parliament and state assemblies. Tejashwi ji has talked about all these things. We want to tell the government that we are in alert mode. Only an announcement will not quieten us. We will mount pressure. Currently, the country is caught up in a war-like situation. In deference, we don’t want to switch to the agitation mode now. But the issue can’t be deferred indefinitely – as the government has done with regard to women’s reservation. You see why. Women’s reservation is dependent on? On delimitation. Delimitation is dependent on? On the census. Census is dependent on? On the whims of the Union Home Minister. Census does not seem to be happening. We want to cross all these hurdles and get the caste census done.
Of late, the Congress has been dabbling in the politics of backwards and extremely backwards in Bihar. How will it affect the RJD politically?
In no way. My party and I believe that bigger the footprint, better it is; more the fingers, stronger the fist. So, we have no problems with it. None at all.
What is RJD’s stand on giving representation to Pasmanda Muslims?
Through you, I want to assure everyone that we will ensure unprecedented representation to the backwards from all communities. Tejashwi has said this on many occasions.
(Translated from the original Hindi by Amrish Herdenia)
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