Sushil Modi on the warpath

A resurgent Sushil Modi is taking on Lalu Prasad, but BJP is yet to put its weight behind veteran

Around noon on a hot Tuesday, Sushil Kumar Modi’s official residence on Patna’s Polo Road is filled with 50 or so people, gathered here for an audience with the Bharatiya Janata Party leader. He may be in the opposition but that doesn’t keep Modi from holding this Janata Darbar. At 1 pm sharp, Modi turns his attention to cameramen and reporters and his weekly disclosures begin.
 
For the last three months, Modi in such meetings has ranted against the alleged financial misdemeanors of one family: Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
 
It all began in April when he brandished a document that alleged that the Patna Zoo fraudulently purchased soil worth Rs 90 lakh from a company owned by an RJD MLA, Syed Abu Dojana. The zoo comes under the direct supervision of Lalu’s older son, Tej Pratap. Later, it came to light that the MLA’s company was constructing a mall on property owned by LARA Projects LLP, which is promoted by Rabri and her two sons, Tej Pratap and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi. Modi alleged that the property was kickback from a prominent hotelier for getting two railway hotels on long-term lease when Lalu was the Union railways minister (2004-09).

 

Since then, Modi has relentlessly attacked the first family of the RJD over dubious land dealings. He has alleged that Tej Pratap acquired a fuel station in Patna on the basis of fudged documents. Bharat Petroleum later cancelled the allocation on the grounds that Tej Pratap concealed facts while applying for the station.
 
The last 12 years have been a roller-coaster ride for the veteran BJP leader. From scripting a stellar success story for the JD(U)-BJP alliance in the 2005 and 2010 assembly elections to facing defeat in 2015, life seems to have come a  full circle for Modi.

 
After the staggering performance in the 2010 assembly elections, Modi was seen as someone who had established BJP in the state. As finance minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, he brought the state back from the verge of insolvency.

However, his closeness to Nitish proved to be his Achilles’ heel. After Kumar broke off from the BJP in 2013, his detractors blamed Modi for stroking Kumar’s aspirations. That triggered his marginalisation within BJP, say political analysts. He was not invited to campaign with Narendra Modi in Varanasi during the 2014 general elections. The next year, in spite of all the firepower, BJP won only 53 seats in the 243-member house. Modi was blamed for the debacle. Last year, there was talk that he would be sent to the Rajya Sabha; instead, his bête-noire in the party, Gopal Narain Singh, was selected.

 
More ignominy was on its way. The central leadership appointed Nityanand Rai, not Modi, as the state BJP chief. Many of Modi’s loyalists in the party were quickly dropped by Rai. This year too, while several of his juniors were invited to campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Modi was ignored by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
 
His fusillade against Lalu’s family has infused new life into Modi’s political career. BJP doesn’t know if to lionise him or continue to sidestep him. That’s why most party leaders have been quiet on the issues raised by Modi. “We are united in this fight,” says Modi. “If I am raising the matter, this means that I have the party’s approval and backing.”

 
Many attribute his resurgence to his hard work and his desire to be in control. During the highly-charged students’ agitation of 1970s, he was the general secretary of the Patna University student’s union. Many expected that he would fail because his subject, botany, wasn’t easy and he hardly attended classes. However, he came second in the entire university.
 
After the Emergency, he was reluctant to join active politics and stayed on with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Life changed after he married Jessie George, a Roman Catholic from Maharashtra, whom he met during a train journey to Mumbai, on April 13, 1986. Their two sons, Utkarsh Tathagat and Akshay Amritanshu, work in engineering and legal fields, respectively.

 
In spite of the party’s nonchalance, Modi’s attacks have hit home: The income-tax department has served notices to attach the assets of Rabri Devi, her daughter Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar, son Tejaswi and daughters Chanda and Ragini. These assets are said to have a “deed value” of Rs 9.32 crore, though, according to a news report, the taxman has estimated their current value at Rs 70-180 crore.
 
The IT department has also attached plots in Patna where the mall is being constructed. On Wednesday, the department grilled Misa, who is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, and Shailesh for more than five hours. Modi has also written to the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation to get into the act.

 
Modi and Lalu share a four-decade old relationship. In 1974, when Lalu was the president of Patna University students’ union, Modi was the secretary. They worked together in staging students’ protests before and during the Emergency.
 
Their banter betrayed their friendship. In March, when BJP scored a big win in Uttar Pradesh, Modi asked Lalu on Twitter, “Kaa haal ba (How are you doing)?” Lalu retorted: “I’m alright. See, BJP seems to have benefited from not allowing you to enter UP.”
 
However, it all changed as soon as Modi started his attacks. In April, Lalu called him a “vulgar person, who targets children”. It’s said that Tej Pratap sought “celestial intervention” to defeat “enemies” of his family — he held a yagna at his official residence for seven nights to “vanquish his political opponents”.

 
He is also said to have bought a car worth Rs 37 lakh for a tirth yatra to Vrindavan. He took a small party of supporters with him, who were strictly told not to drink liquor or eat non-vegetarian food during the trip. When asked about the purpose of the trip, he says, “It’s between me and the god. Why should I tell you?” The minister even changed the main gate of his official residence for better vibes.
 
Stung by Modi’s attack, RJD has retaliated. Spearheaded by national spokesperson Manoj Jha, the party accused his older brother, Raj Kumar Modi, of amassing wealth through corporate subterfuge. "Ever since Modi became deputy chief minister in 2005, he amassed property worth thousands of crores through shell companies of his brother," Jha alleges.

 
Modi says he is neither a partner nor a director in “any of his relative’s businesses”. “The RJD spokespersons have not made a single allegation against me or my immediate family. As far as my brothers and nephews are concerned, they are adults and they are not my responsibility.”
 
Modi takes pains to emphasise that in spite of coming from a family of businessmen, business has never been “his cup of tea”. He started a computer training institute in 1988 and borrowed Rs 56,000 from a bank for it. However, the venture failed as Modi was too involved in politics.

 
With the attacks on Lalu’s family, Modi has found his mojo back.
 
If the grapevine is to be trusted, the Yadavs blame JD(U) leaders for leaking the documents to Modi. Rabri openly accused two of the most trusted upper caste leaders of JD(U) for trying to sabotage the alliance during a meeting of party leaders last month. “Not just the politicians, but also the bureaucrats and ordinary citizens are giving us information. They are unhappy with the present state of affairs and want action against guilty people,” Modi told Business Standard last month.
 
It took Chief Minister Nitish Kumar more than a month to break his silence on the allegations. On May 15, he dared the NDA government at the Centre to take the legal route instead of casting aspersions. The very next day, the income-tax department raided the properties belonging to people considered close to Lalu.