NEW DELHI: During the punishing summers of 1997, Raghuvansh Babu would sometimes take the ride back from Parliament to his official residence at Delhis Ashoka Road in the ramshackle, non-AC Maruti 800 of this reporter, abandoning the comfort of the official vehicle which was provided to him as a Union minister in the United Front government.
One often wondered why a man of his stature would abandon his air-conditioned Ambassador for an old vehicle which he had fondly named CMP. Referring to the UFs common minimum programme, which was constantly a bone of contention between Left and other UF partners as well as Congress, which supported the two successive governments of the Front, he would say: “CMP chal to raha hai sarkar mein aur iss desh mein. Jaise tumhara vahan chal raha hai. Ye CMP hai, AC wagerah nahin to kya hua (Just like your car is running without frills, this government is implementing the CMP in the country).”
Remaining grounded even after climbing peaks in his political career was a quality that Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was known for and he found ways to accomplish that — be it his constituency Vaishali in Bihar that he had nurtured over decades or Lutyens Delhi, which became his second home after he debuted in Parliament with his victory in the 1996 Lok Sabha election.
Raghuvansh died at AIIMS-Delhi on Sunday at the age of 74, leaving his party RJD and its boss Lalu Prasad in shock, as his demise comes three days after he had written a personal letter to Lalu saying he was quitting the party and the latter cajoling him by writing back that he was not going anywhere.
The passing of RaghuvanshRead More – Source
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