SUSHIL MODI

When dividing lines are etched deeper, he was a builder of bridges, an unusual leader for the moment he lived and died in

AMONG THE SEVERAL richly deserved tributes that flowed in was the one Lalu Prasad wrote for “51-52 varshon se hamare mitra, bhai Sushil Modi (my friend and brother for 51-52 years, Sushil Modi)”. In his homage, Lalu’s son and political heir, Tejashwi, described Modi as “hamaare abhibhavak (our guiding light)”. That Lalu and Tejashwi should choose these words to pay their respects to the leader, who died after a battle with cancer on Monday, is good form — but it is more than just that. After all, Modi’s rivalry with Lalu, which began during their participation in the JP movement in the 1970s, had billowed over the following decades. Modi was one of the lead petitioners in Patna High Court in the fodder scam that has overhung most of Lalu’s political career, and still shadows his legacy and his son’s stewardship of the RJD. He played a pivotal role in Lalu’s conviction and later, his pungent press conferences on the property that Lalu and his family had allegedly acquired illegally hastened the end of the ruling alliance between the JD(U) and RJD. Lalu and Tejashwi’s tributes to a fierce political opponent are, above all, an ode to the way of Sushil Modi, whose relationships, across political differences and party lines, were marked by respect and cordiality.

The character of the BJP in Bihar — an ideologically less edgy and politically more flexible force — was shaped by the man who played various roles in the course of its rise, from MLA to Leader of Opposition, to Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, the last one for 11 years in two stints, November 2005 to June 2013, and July 2017 to December 2020. In Bihar, unlike in neighbouring UP, for instance, the BJP has been reticent on polarising campaigns like “love jihad”. To be sure, that has to do with the state’s political biography. In this landscape of glaring inequalities, the socialist movement and the JP agitation for “total revolution” laid the ground for “social justice” mobilisations in the 1990s, which took precedence over religion-centric politics. But it also had to do with the leadership style of Sushil Modi. As he helped steer Bihar’s turnaround story as Nitish Kumar’s deputy, he kept governance at the centre and insistently spoke the language of policy. He is credited with pioneering the gender budget in Bihar, and in the state and at the Centre, played a key role in building the consensus that helped ease the implementation of the GST, and subsequently the fine-tuning of the indirect tax regime in the country.

Sushil Modi will be remembered for each and all the parts he played with wisdom and dignity — RSS swayamsevak and ABVP activist, protester who went to jail during the Emergency, deputy CM and finance minister of Bihar in a critical time for the state, and MP who expertly steered the work of several parliamentary committees. But most of all, in times when the dividing lines are etched deeper, and spaces are shrinking for dialogue and civility, he will be remembered as the gentle politician and the builder of bridges, an unusual leader for the political moment he lived and died in.