As Meira Kumar prepares for Prez battle, father's memorial lies neglected

Inside bungalow number 6 at Lutyens Delhi's Krishna Menon Marg, lies a quiet, nondescript room that houses a memorial of former deputy prime minister Babu Jagjivan Ram.

Adorned with around 40 of his pictures — cutting across different time periods, with eminent personalities, children and family --and a statue alongside, this room is the lone corner of the sprawling bungalow dedicated to the towering late Dalit icon, also the longest serving central minister.

With his daughter and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar fighting the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan as a nominee of the united opposition against NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind, the focus is back on Babu Jagjivan Ram Foundation. It is an autonomous body under the union social justice ministry — was set up in March 2008 on the request of Kumar.

Over the years, the Foundation has failed to attract visitors or create adequate awareness about the memorial. The room, thus, remains locked on most days, a caretaker at the bungalow told DNA, adding that Kumar is not a frequent visitor to the bungalow either.

An office of the Foundation, tasked with working and researching on the late Congress leader, is located at the main bungalow entrance. The memorial has a sanctioned strength of nine staff. However, it has only four people including a peon. While most part of the premise is locked and is largely underutilised, a section of it is occupied by its caretakers who have served Kumar's family.

However, on Friday afternoon, there are not more than three people present in the office. Babu Jagjivan Ram lived at the till his death in 1986. After his death, his wife Indrani Devi continued to live in the house till she passed away in 2002. After that, Kumar mooted a proposal to set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram memorial in the bungalow instead of handing it over to the urban development ministry.

The bungalow was given on lease to the foundation in 2013 for 25 years, till 2038.

Kumar had occupied the bungalow from 2002 to 2008 for which she had to pay a rent of Rs 1.98 crore to the ministry.

However, the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government let her off from paying a rent for retaining two palatial houses in the Lutyen's Bungalow area. However, the current government in 2014 slapped her a notice for a rent recovery of Rs 12 lakh. This led to a legal battle and a district court recently had set aside the matter.

A number of RTIs filed by DNA revealed that during the NDA 1 tenure, the cabinet committee on accommodation in 2000, had taken a decision on not setting up any new memorials in the Lutyens' Bungalow Zone. The note reads, "…such memorials have created an 'acute shortage of such type of accommodation' and couldn't be given to those entitled. Ministers, senior most bureaucrats and officers of the armed forces get this type of accommodation, which are less than 200 in the entire Lutyens' Bungalow Zone."However, overpowering this decision, the urban development ministry in 2008 allotted the bungalow to Kumar for setting up a memorial in the bungalow.

The current Narendra Modi government in 2016 was mulling to vacate the bungalow and shifting the memorial to another smaller premise. Marred with controversies of forced conversions and ghar wapsi, the government finally decided against touching this issue fearing it would earn them the ire of the Dalit community.

Officials from the social justice ministry informed that the foundation had set up a Babu Jagjivan Ram Chair in 2013-14.

The first chair was set up at the University of South Bihar in Gaya where Meira Kumar was the Chancellor. However, a year later, it was scrapped because it did not find any takers. The foundation in September 2016 had written to five universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Patna University, Dr BR Ambedkar University of Social Science, and Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur to set up Jagjivan Ram Chairs, but is yet to receive a concrete response.

"Unlike Ambedkar, there are no thoughts around Babu Jagjivan Ram. While Ambedkar wrote on varied issues, it is difficult to find research material around Jagjivan Ram," professor Badri Narayana of GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad told DNA.

In Chandwa village in Arra district, village councillor Chanda Devi bats for Kumar's win, but complains that she doesn't visit her village.

"She visits village only at death and birth anniversary of Babu Jagjivan Ram and distributes food and clothes to poor,"Devi said.

Even statues of her father Jagjivan Ram and mother Indrani Devi installed years ago are yet to be unveiled. Kumar had made it a point that the President of India will unveil them, but twice the President's programme to come to the village got canceled.

Another Congress leader from village Sridhar Tiwari said villagers are still feeling pain that Babu Jagjivan Ram could not become the PM. "Now if his daughter becomes the President, it will be offer some relief,"he said. However, he complained that Kumar has done little for her village, despite holding important positions.

Former Union minister Ajit Singh to convert 12, Tuglaq Road bungalow in a memorial in the name of his father and former prime minister late Choudhary Charan Singh

A brief history

The Babu Jagjivan Ram Foundation — an autonomous body under the Union social justice ministry — was set up in 2008 on the request of Kumar.
Over the years, the foundation has failed to create awareness about the memorial.