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Obituary
By Dheeraj Sinha
The 74-year old Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had a meteoric rise in politics on the strengths of his simplicity, loyalty and hard work before he breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi earlier in the day, today.
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Born on June 6, 1946 in Vaishali, Raghuvansh Babu, also fondly called as Brahma Baba by his supporters and journalists, was a Professor and Ph.D. in mathematics and an expert in rural and agricultural landscape in India. He represented the Vaishali constituency five times.
He was one of the senior most politicians in India as a people’s representative in the legislature from 1977. He started his political career when he was elected as an MLA and was subsequently made the Energy Minister of Bihar in the Karpoori Thakur cabinet. He had represented Belsand constituency five times in the Bihar vidhan sabha. He was made the member of Bihar legislative council in a 1991 post and subsequently rose to become the chairman of Bihar legislative council. He had been in the Union cabinet for three terms too.
Raghuvansh babu, as he was popularly called, was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Act).
As a modest tribute to Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who is no more, we invite you to relive his historic move on NREGA in the Indian Parliament, in 2005. pic.twitter.com/0FRfNVehKg
— Road Scholarz (@roadscholarz) September 13, 2020
In his political career spanning over four decades, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh represented the state’s Vaishali constituency and was the Union Minister for Rural Development in the Congress-led UPA-I government. He also served as Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, as well as Food and Consumer Affairs.
He had submitted his resignation letter to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday.
Also read: Lalu’s closest aid Raghuvansh Prasad Singh quits RJD at the stroke of state elections
Less than an hour after his death, a shocked Lalu Prasad posted a highly emotional tweet: “Dear Raghuvansh babu! What did you do? I told you the day before yesterday, you are not going anywhere. But you went so far. I am speechless. I am sad. Will miss you very much.”
Singh had tested positive for COVID-19 in June, after which he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna. He was re-admitted to AIIMS in Delhi, where he was being treated for post-Covid complications.
His condition deteriorated rapidly over the past two days and he was placed on a ventilator. He died at around 11 AM after complaining of breathlessness.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who this morning was speaking at the launch of petroleum projects in Bihar, began his speech by paying tribute to Singh. “Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is no more among us. His demise has left a void in the political sphere of Bihar as well as the country,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also told Chief Minister Nitish Kumar “we should try our best to fulfill the spirit that Raghuvansh Prasad has expressed in his last letter”.
“I would urge Nitishji that you and we (the BJP) should try our best to fulfill the spirit that Raghuvansh Prasad has expressed in his last letter. Raghuvanshji had… sent a list of his development works to the Chief Minister of Bihar. (Concern for) the people of Bihar (and) concern for the development of Bihar appears in that letter,” PM Modi said.
In a series of letters written by Singh from his hospital bed in his last few days, he had demanded from the Bihar CM that work under the job scheme should be allowed on the land of general farmers so that farmers get more work by making necessary changes through an ordinance.
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