RJD leader discusses Tejashwi Yadav's marriage. file photo
State Bureau, Patna. Former National Vice President of RJD Shivanand Tiwari, BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of the state Late. Sushil Kumar remembered Modi as his great opponent.
Said- There was something about Sushil Modi which separated him from other BJP leaders. Like some other BJP leaders associated with the JP movement, Modi also did not utter any word of hatred.
As such leaders, Tiwari named Assembly Speaker Dr. Took the names of Prem Kumar and former Speaker of the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav.
Shivanand wrote in his Facebook post on Monday – Sushil used to throw Iftar party every Eid. A good number of Muslims participated in it. He also got a good amount of votes from Muslims.
Sushil had an inter-religious marriage
Sushil's marriage was inter-religious. He fell in love with a Christian girl, Jessica, and married her. This may not seem very credible in today's environment.
Sushil had selected Jessica ji as a Christian girl. The marriage also took place according to Arya Samaj ceremony. Atal ji also came to bless that marriage.
On the other hand, we also saw the marriage of Tejashwi Yadav, but that Christian girl got converted. The marriage took place in a pure Brahmin ceremony. Before marriage, her father-in-law changed her original name to a new one.
Shivanand wrote on his Facebook – I was introduced to him during the JP movement. Sushil was the leader of Vidyarthi Parishad in those days and I was associated with the socialist stream.
During that movement we had more meetings and conversations with Govindacharya and Ram Bahadur Rai. Govind ji was of our age. Ram Bahadur was younger than me. But he had Sangh ideology. That's why there was more debate between these two.
Big role of Govindacharya
In those days, Jan Sangh (now BJP) was dominated by upper caste leaders. Kailash Pati Mishra was considered the leading man of Jan Sangh.
Tarakant Jha, Yashoda Nand Singh, Lal Muni Choubey, Swami Nath Tiwari etc. were dominant. They used to suppress the leaders of the new generation backward castes.
Govindacharya started social engineering in Bihar Jan Sangh. He played an important role in promoting youth like Sushil Modi, Nandkishore Yadav or Prem Kumar within the party.
My real introduction to Sushil Modi happened in Bankipur jail. However, we were different from each other in both thoughts and temperament.
Sushil and I had come to jail with books. It was Sushil who made me read Dinkar ji's "Char Adhyay of Culture" in jail.
He wrote – There too we had differences of opinion regarding some matters. I had decided to fight with the administration regarding the matters of prisoners.
The situation had become very tense. Sushil was not in favor of clashing with the administration regarding the problems of common prisoners. Despite sometimes sharp differences, there was mostly mutual harmony among us.
In 1980, Jan Sangh was transformed into BJP. Gradually the older generation went by the wayside. The leadership of the party came into the hands of the new generation. Sushil became the number one face of BJP.
The entire map of Bihar politics was in his mind. He knew his party workers very well. Shivanand praised the courage of Sushil Modi.
Wrote- In the days when Lalu Prasad was the most powerful leader of Bihar, at that time Sushil Modi was the biggest leader of the opposition party in Bihar. The rest were a little subdued.
But Sushil used to answer Lalu Turkishly. An attempt was made to make various types of allegations against Sushil also. He was accused of illegally acquiring the land of a church. Sushil challenged to prove the allegation. But no proof emerged.