A pension plan, "JP Senani Samman," that benefits those who were part of Jayprakash Narayan or JP's group of dissenters during the Emergency from 1975 to 1977 and were jailed for it, will be applicable to even former Chief Minister Lalu Yadav after the Bihar government approved his application.
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Yadav, who is in alliance with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, will be getting Rs 10,000 under the scheme. However, senior BJP leader, Sushil Kumar Modi, who was poised as BJP's chief ministerial candidate during the recent elections will not be taking the money even though he is eligible.
The Bihar chief minister is also eligible under the pension scheme.
The scheme states that those who were jailed up to six months during the JP movement will be given a pension of Rs 5,000 a month and those jailed for a longer time will get Rs 10,000.
Yadav had been a student leader during the Emergency. He had been jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act or MISA, which was used to quell the uprising against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Yadav named his eldest daughter, Misa, after the act.
At least 3,100 pensioners will be benefitted by the scheme.
What is interesting here is that Yadav's party Rashtriya Janata Dal co-governs Bihar with Kumar. His sons hold office in the government that came into force in 2015 after elections. In July 2016, the BJP had condemned the Bihar leaders for compromising JP's principles by aligning with the Congress, under whose rule, Emergency was imposed in India.
"The disciples of JP - Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar - are sitting on the lap of the Congress, which inflicted torture on JP. If JP's disciples sit on the lap of Congress, then they are the real killers of his principles. Its a matter of shame," Union agriculture and farmers welfare minister Radha Mohan Singh had said.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also criticised them for betraying JP.
