Day Raghuvansh Prasad Singh quit RJD, he wrote: No ideology, only feudalism in party

In a veiled attack on RJD, he wrote, “There has been so much degradation in politics that it has become a threat to democracy. Some parties are carrying out trade in (election) ticket distribution, which in turn is a trade of votes...

On the day he quit RJD, former Union minister and senior leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had also accused the party of promoting nepotism and “feudalism”, and, without taking names, stated in the separate letter that five members of “one family” have replaced icons such as Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Karpoori Thakur in the party’s poster.

While Singh did not name either RJD or party chief Lalu Prasad, he regretted — handwritten on his official, former Lok Sabha MP letterhead – the gradual “degradation of politics” and that socialism was replaced by “dynasty, feudalism, casteism and communalism”.

Meanwhile, Singh’s condition deteriorated since Friday night, and he was admitted to hospital on Saturday with complaints of recurrent cough.

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Read| Raghuvansh writes to Nitish Kumar, JD(U) warms up to veteran socialist

On September 10, when he wrote a one-line resignation letter to RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Singh wrote two other letters – one addressed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the need for development in Vaishali, the constituency he had represented in Lok Sabha on multiple occasions, and the other not addressed to anyone in particular and headlined “Rajneeti matlab buraai se ladhna, dharm matlab achchhai karna (politics meaning fighting against evil; religion means doing good)”.

While the letter to Nitish was released on Friday, this letter emerged in public on Saturday.

Singh mentioned that he had written to the RJD leadership to revive the party but the leadership did not consider it “worth reading”. He wrote (translated from Hindi): “The party cannot be run by creating posts of several general secretaries and issuing statements daily….there has been no debate on ideology in the party; there is only feudalism. Things cannot function in this way.”

In a veiled attack on RJD, he wrote, “There has been so much degradation in politics that it has become a threat to democracy. Some parties are carrying out trade in (election) ticket distribution, which in turn is a trade of votes…

“Lakhs of people had followed Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, B R Ambedkar, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Karpoori Thakur. They faced difficulties but did not waver (in their belief).” But, he wrote, “these great men’s pictures were replaced by five members of one family”.

Without naming RJD, Singh wrote: “After getting some post, one (of these persons) aimed to earn money. Most hankered after posts after getting money.” Singh added that he “could not tolerate it and is ready to fight”.