Chirag Paswan gets death threat, seeks action

Union minister Chirag Paswan on Tuesday received a threat claiming that he will be killed by terrorists, according to his office, which has sought enhanced security for him and thorough probe into the matter

Union minister Chirag Paswan on Tuesday received a threat claiming that he will be killed by terrorists, according to his office, which has sought enhanced security for him and thorough probe into the matter.

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“An unsigned communication containing two mobile numbers was received in the Ministry today. Upon opening the same, it was found to contain a direct threat to the life of the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries. The threatening portion of the communication, excluding the mobile numbers mentioned therein, reads: ‘You will be killed shortly by hardcore terrorists’,” Alok Kumar Singh, additional private secretary to Paswan, said in a letter to Union home secretary Govind Mohan.

Paswan is a Z category VIP protectee and is secured by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

“It is further requested that the security arrangements of the minister may be reviewed and suitably augmented, as considered necessary, in view of the threat perception and his scheduled public engagements,” Singh’s letter to Mohan said.

The MHA has not commented on the developments.

In an unrelated development last week, Paswan demanded resignations of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) founder and Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and his son Bihar minister Santosh Kumar Suman, for advocating a review of scheduled caste (SC) reservation.

The flashpoint is the call for reviewing SC/ST quotas and introducing sub-categorisation.

“We are in favour...We are simply asking for a review of the SC/ST quotas. We want quota benefits to reach the least privileged among us,” Suman told reporters on Friday.

Manjhi has backed the line, framing it as social justice and citing the Supreme Court’s 2024 judgment permitting sub-classifications based on empirical data.

Paswan’s stance is in line with that of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, who had fiercely opposed a separate “Mahadalit” category introduced in the state more than a decade ago by the then chief minister Nitish Kumar.

When Manjhi’s attention was drawn to Paswan’s latest retort, he said, “It is not us, but Chirag Paswan who should resign as he is unable to understand the point Santosh and I have been making in the broader interests of Dalits.” “It is a fact that among the Dalits, there are castes which are relatively more vulnerable and these deserve targeted welfare which can happen after introducing a sub-category...” the Gaya MP said.