Jayant Sinha Dumps Dad Yashwant Sinha’s Legacy: We Wonder Why

Jayant Sinha gave financial and legal help to Jharkhand lynching accused. What does this say about the BJP?

(Photo: The Quint)

Union Minister Jayant Sinha conveniently ignores the distinction between ‘Accused’ and ‘Convicted’. He has conceded to BBC Hindi that not only did he garland 8 men who were convicted for the murder of Alimuddin Ansari in June 2017, in Jharkhand, he also paid part of their legal fees. His justification is that several politicians who are accused of crimes in ongoing trials are also garlanded.

But Jayant Sinha ji, an ‘accused’ is seen as innocent until proven guilty.

A convict, is a convict, is a convict. Held guilty by a court of law. In this case, guilty of murder. Sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sinha also told BBC Hindi that he could help Mariam Khatoon if she came to him. He also said that the administration would be helping her. Well, Mariam told BBC Hindi that she has gotten nothing from the administration in almost two years.

In fact, she appealed to Sinha via BBC to get her son a job. Since she has now ‘reached out’ to the Minister for help, one hopes he will act as promised.

Jayant Sinha cracked the super-tough IIT entrance exam when he was in Class 11, studied at IIT Delhi, then at Harvard Business School, and walked away from a brilliant corporate career to take his father’s political seat in Hazaribagh.

Awesome, most people thought. Such brilliant technocrats were needed to change Indian politics. Three-time MP Yashwant Sinha made way for his son. In 2014, Jayant won by almost 1.6 lakh votes, very comfortable margin. He’s expected to win in 2019 too.

So, WHAT was the need for this super-achiever to garland 8 murder convicts? And now to own up to stepping forward and paying their legal fees? In fact, soon after the ‘garlanding’ news broke, Jayant came on record to say he didn’t really know the 8 men.

But, if he is now accepting that he paid part of their legal fees, surely he actually knew EXACTLY who they were. Did I hear someone say ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire!’?

And gosh, I really wonder what Dad must be thinking right now? Yashwant Sinha was a staunch, reliable BJP politician for years. But he left the party in early 2018, one suspects, in part at least because he was unhappy with the manner in which several elements from the Sangh’s radical, violent fringe, were being given more and more centrestage space in the party. With PM Modi paying little more than occasional lip-service against mob-lynchers and hate-spewing comrades.

Jayant Sinha, it seems, has made his peace with this violent cohort, and via garlands and personal funds, is actually quite cosy with them.

Well, he may have got Hazaribagh from Yashwant Sinha, but as things stand, Jayant isn’t the inheritor of his dad’s political legacy. And that, is such a tragedy.