A plaque of an educational institute with former Union Minister late Ram Vilas Paswan’s name on it is being used to cover a drain in Bihar’s Hajipur – a constituency he represented eight times since he first won the seat in 1977 – showed a video, drawing condemnation from his lawmaker son, and brother.
The stone plate – that belongs to Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology Institute (CIPET) in the industrial area of Hajipur in Vaishali district – said the hostel of the institute was inaugurated by Mr Paswan on September 26, 2007, when he was the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers in the Manmohan Singh government.
The plaque was apparently being used to cover the gutter inside the premises of the institute’s women’s hostel after its chamber cover broke.
When an officer associated with the CIPET institute was reached out for comments, he refused.
Ram Vilas Paswan’s son, Union Minister Chirag Paswan, who currently represents the Hajipur constituency in Lok Sabha, condemned the incident:
“I received information through the media and journalist colleagues that the nameplate of my leader, my father, was misused in Hajipur, which is extremely unfortunate.”
In a post on X, Mr Paswan informed that he has “instructed that the nameplate be re-installed at a respectable place”.
“I cannot tolerate the insult of my leader under any circumstances, and whoever is found guilty in this incident, action will be taken against him at all costs,” he wrote.
मीडिया और पत्रकार साथियों के माध्यम से यह सूचना प्राप्त हुई कि हाजीपुर में मेरे नेता, मेरे पिता के नाम की नेमप्लेट का गलत तरीके से इस्तेमाल किया गया, जो कि अत्यंत दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है। इस विषय के संज्ञान में आने के बाद मैंने तुरंत कार्रवाई के लिए स्थानीय जिला प्रशासन और सिपेट… pic.twitter.com/wb4BaBqJFy
— युवा बिहारी चिराग पासवान (@iChiragPaswan) September 7, 2024
Ram Vilas Paswan’s younger brother, Pashupati Kumar Paras, who represented the Hajipur seat from 2019 to 2024, sought a police case.
“An FIR should be registered against the culprits and the harshest punishment should be given,” he said.
Crediting his brother for the CIPET institute, he said, “He had worked hard to bring the institute to Hajipur. Today, such a shameful act is being done to the stone slab of the man who brought this college and got it established.”
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan won the Hajipur seat in Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Mr Paswan, an NDA partner, gave up his Jamui seat to contest from Hajipur.
In 2019, the Hajipur seat was won by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a year before Ram Vilas Paswan’s death on October 9, 2020. Pashupati Kumar Paras resigned from the Union cabinet this year when the BJP announced that it would back his nephew.
– With inputs from Kaushal Kishor Pathak.
