New Delhi: Mauryan Emperor Ashoka has become an issue of intense political bickering between Bihar’s ruling alliance partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United). They are fighting with each other to claim the legacy of Ashoka, 2,253 years after his death.
The fight to emerge as custodian of Emperor Ashoka’s legacy—despite no record existing to prove Ashoka supporting either the JDU’s “socialist” or BJP’s “right” bent of politics—is tied to the almost 9% Kushwaha (Koeri) voters of the state, who regard themselves as the descendants of Ashoka.
This battle for Kushwaha votes was reignited after an 87-year-old Hindi writer, Daya Prakash Sinha, an Etah, Uttar Pradesh-born IAS officer, who retired in 1993, while speaking to a Hindi daily on 8 January, compared Ashoka to Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Sinha, quoting historical documents, stated that both kings had committed many sins. He also made other “disparaging” remarks against Ashoka while speaking to Navbharat Times.
Sinha had got the Sahitya Akademi award in 2021 and Padma Shri in 2020 for his contribution in the field of Art. Sinha was also recognised by the Sahitya Akademi for his play, King Ashok. In April 2016, he was appointed as a member of the re-constituted board of trustees of the prestigious Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), Ministry of Culture, Government of India. As on Thursday, the IGNCA’s website still listed him as one of the five members. Sinha, as per his admission, is the convenor of the BJP’s cultural cell.
Soon after his interview was published, the JDU started an agitation against him for his “offensive” remarks, comparing “Ashoka the Great” with “Mughal Badshah Aurangzeb”.
Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lalan Singh, national president of the JDU, on 12 January tweeted, “Criticism of one of the greatest kings in ancient India cannot be accepted. A person who used offensive words against the celebrated king does not deserve accolades. I request the President of India to take back Padma Shri from Sinha and also request the authority concerned to take back his other awards.”
A similar request came from JDU’s parliamentary board chairman, Upendra Kushwaha, who was more direct in his attack on the BJP, while stating that “He (Sinha) has made a very foul remark about Samrat (emperor) Ashoka. He does not deserve the award and the same should be withdrawn. The party, of which he happens to be an office-bearer, must also take action if it wants to avoid backlash.”
The Bihar BJP, which was initially caught napping until the JDU leaders started reacting, immediately started a fire-fighting exercise and on 13 January, the state president, Sanjay Jaiswal filed an FIR in Patna against Sinha, while stating that he was not a part of the BJP.
In his complaint, Jaiswal said Sinha had described himself on his Wikipedia page as currently serving as the national convener of the BJP cultural wing. “This fact is wholly incorrect. He is in no manner connected with the BJP.”
Not satisfied with the BJP’s response and sensing a political opportunity, JDU’s Upendra Kushwaha has refused to stop the agitation against Sinha, until the awards given to him by the Central government are taken away.
While quoting the FIR, Kushwaha on 13 February stated that Jaiswal was indulging in an “eyewash” and was “sprinkling salt on the wounds”. Later, on 25 January, Kushwaha organised a rally in Patna under the aegis of “Mahatama Phule Samata Parishad”, demanding the slapping of sedition charges against Sinha, while questioning why the Central government had not stripped Sinha of his award and claiming that Ashoka was being maligned because he belonged to a backward caste.
Kushwaha had merged his political outfit, RLSP with the JDU in March 2021, but since then, he has been ignored in the party which already has satraps like Nitish Kumar and Lalan Singh.
According to Patna-based political observers, Kushwaha believes that this is the right moment to prove that he is the tallest Kushwaha leader in the state and hence has launched the agitation against Sinha under an independent banner rather than the JDU banner.
To counter this attack being carried out by Kushwaha and the JDU, the Bihar BJP has fielded a Kushwaha of its own.
Ratnesh Kushwaha, who is a member of BJP’s Bihar state working committee, on 25 January, through an official press release on the party letterhead, claimed that Upendra Kushwaha was indulging in “opportunistic politics”.
“If he was serious about the issue, rather than making political statements, he would have ensured that the cases filed against Sinha by Sanjay Jaiswal were investigated and acted on swiftly. I hope Upendra Kushwaha remembers that the home department and the police are with the JDU. He is indulging in an eyewash and doing opportunistic politics to misguide the Kushwaha community. Earlier he was giving political statements and ‘fighting’ to improve the condition of educational infrastructure in the state. That fight ended as soon as he became an MLC. Now he has taken up another “fight” for his own personal benefits. I request him to take this issue seriously and not use it as a political plank,” Ratnesh Kushwaha told The Sunday Guardian. The department of home in Bihar is with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
According to historians, Emperor Ashoka, who was the grandson of Maurya dynasty founder Chandragupta Maurya, was born in a family of shepherds. The capital of the Maurya dynasty was Pataliputra, today’s Patna.
The politics over Ashoka as a caste leader had started in Bihar during the 2015 Assembly elections, when the BJP had launched a state-wide campaign to popularise him as a Kushwaha. This campaign was aimed at weakening the hold of JDU (then estranged from the BJP) over Kushwaha voters.
The battle for Ashoka is also related to the Uttar Pradesh elections, a state where Kushwahas are present in significant numbers.