“Cheated, Humiliated”: Chirag Paswan On Eviction From Delhi Bungalow
Images from the eviction showed the Paswan family’s belongings in big piles by the road and photos of Ram Vilas Paswan kept on them.
New Delhi: Chirag Paswan, evicted last week from the government bungalow allotted to his father, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, said he felt “cheated” at the way his family was thrown out and humiliated.
“Dhokha hua hai (It was a betrayal),” Chirag Paswan told the leading news channel. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP said he had been prepared to vacate the 12, Janpath bungalow as his family was no longer entitled to it after Ram Vilas Paswan’s death.
“Something that belongs to the government cannot be permanent and we would never think of claiming it. I was lucky to stay here for so many years. My father played a long innings here…this house was practically the birthplace of the social justice movement,” Chirag Paswan said.
“During the lockdown, my father used to see the migrants on the road from that house and worry about them. He called the Prime Minister to express his concern.”
Mr Paswan continued: “I don’t feel bad about losing the house…it would have gone someday. I just object to the way in which it was done.”
He said while the deadline to vacate was March 20, he had been ready to leave the day before.
“I was leaving…I don’t know why I was stopped from leaving the house and given an assurance,” he said.
Images from the eviction showed the Paswan family’s belongings in big piles by the road and photos of Ram Vilas Paswan kept on them.
“They threw my father’s photo… We had such cherished photos. They walked on the photos with slippers on…they wore slippers all over the beds,” Mr Paswan said.
“This sort of humiliation for someone you gave the Padma Bhushan this year – you are insulting his memory…”
Asked whether he continued to see himself as “Hanuman” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lord Ram, Mr Paswan said: “I have been on my own path in the past year and a half. There is no point in an alliance where there is no mutual respect.”
Mr Paswan, who was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), contested the 2020 Bihar election on his own and failed to make a mark. Last year, his uncle Pashupati Paras broke away and formed his own outfit.
“They first divided my family. They threw me out of my own party, then the house but I am a tiger’s son. I will keep working for my ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’ mission and I will work with greater clarity,” he said, refusing to talk about the status of his ties with PM Modi.
