medium_Ram Vilas Paswan

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Ram Vilas Paswan

A young boy born on 5 July 1946, in the streets of Khagaria in Bihar in a Dalit family wrote his name on the political slate of India. His journey wasn't an easy one but what it made of him- of the Dalit superhero- is a story worth telling. Ram Vilas Paswan, was no ordinary man but his childhood was as ordinary as one could imagine - spent playing in the narrow streets of his home town.

Through his dedication, Paswan found an honourable job at the slight age of twenty-three. He was selected as the DCP. This brought happiness and merriment to his family and opened the ways of celebration for the household of their child getting selected in the Bihar Police. Little did anyone know that it was just the beginning.

> Ram Vilas had always thought about bigger things in his life. What was considered a great success by many, were merely stepping stones for him.

He had something totally different in his mind. He began his journey by building contacts and reached the office of the Samajwadi Party where he met Ram Sanjivan. This was Paswan's introduction to politics. Influenced and impressed, he stood for the elections. However, it was not until 1969 that the people of Bihar voted in his support in the State Assembly elections.

> Like many of his time, Ram Vilas Paswan was also the result of the Emergency. He was made a leader through various political and social movements and was bred as a politician by being jailed at a time when India had lost its democracy.

A true leader always thinks about his moves before taking a step ahead. All Paswan did eventually paved his way for success and far he went above in the political web. Ram Vilas has served as a minister in almost all the ministries of the country. He worked under the guidance of six Prime Ministers and has changed several political parties jumping into Janata Dal and later even JDU.

A Player of Indian Politics; Image Source: Public Domain

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Yet, Paswan didn't have the nuances of a politician. He looked more like the scientist of politics, a title true to his personality. He was often spotted with a Mont Blanc pen, a Rado and Cartier glasses. Who could tell that the posh-looking gentleman was a child who grew up playing on the dirty streets? His lifestyle and living standards were what caused his critics to call him a 'five-star Dalit'. 

> Bihar stood behind him, especially the areas he had in his pocket. Nobody looked at how and when Paswan made a name for himself. His helicopter whirling in the sky was enough to mesmerize the people - "*Dharti gunje Aasman, Ram Vilas Paswan.*"

As the Emergency subsided, Ram Vilas became the most popular face of Bihar. To increase the popularity further, he used his social standing and founded the Dalit Sena on lines of Ambedkar's SC Federation.

For many, he was more successful than they had hoped him to be but for Paswan, this was only a stepping stone. He wanted to become a face of the whole country, of all the Dalits of this country. His hopes, coincidentally, coincided with the passing of the Mandal Commission. As he rose, people started seeing him more as an outsider, a mainstream person, rather than as one of their own. The timing was perfect, the situation not so much. 

In 2000, Paswan went on to make his own party after splitting from the Janata Dal. He managed to earn many Dalit followers after this move. But Ram Vilas' time was coming to an end. The man who moved politics according to his whims and fancies and whose heart desired much more than one can imagine died in 2020, leaving his political legacy for the world to remember.

A pen, a pair of glasses and a stern attitude. That was Ram Vilas Paswan, the 'five-star Dalit', who made it big-time in Indian politics from his humble beginnings as a police officer. On the stead of BR Ambedkar, he moved his pieces on the political board to benefit himself as well as others.