This MLA coveted IAS job

GOPALGANJ: Once upon a time there was an MLA who aspired to become an IAS officer! He wrote the civil services exam, cleared it and was called for interview.

Unfortunately for the IAS aspirant, the interview board chairman asked him if he was already doing any job. “I am an MLA, recently elected from Bhore in Bihar’s Gopalganj district,” he said. “What are you doing here? Politics
needs educated people like you,” the board chairman said, and as the young man made an exit, he knew he would not get the job he coveted.

Pride was writ large on the face of Anil Kumar when he recalled his tryst with destiny at Delhi’s Dholpur House in 1985. In politics, meanwhile, Kumar thrived and the latest is that he is RJD candidate from Gopalganj reserved parliamentary constituency.

He is among a handful of politicians in Bihar who speaks English fluently. Fondly called Sheru Bhai by his friends, he is held in high esteem by one and all because he has never indulged in corruption and mud-slinging. “He is a gem of a person. His rival candidates are no match to him,” says Patna University Teachers’ Association general secretary Randhir Kumar Singh who is camping here to help his friend with campaigning.

Kumar, now 50, is a product of Patna’s prestigious St. Xaviers’ and St Michael’s, and even his opponents appreciate his simplicity and sobriety. “Sheru Bhai is one person who has friends in all sections of society. He has high social and political contacts, but he never boasts of his clout,” said a BJP sympathizer.

Simplicity Sheru Bhai has inherited from his illustrious father Chandrika Ram, the first Dalit from the region to hold a law degree. A deputy minister in the former S K Sinha-led Congress government in the state, Ram also served as a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Kumar is second among four brothers. The eldest brother, Ajit Kumar, is in the Indian Foreign Service, currently posted in Frankfurt, while the third one, Sunil Kumar, is a senior IPS officer. The youngest brother, Sushil, is a doctor based in the UK.

“Sheru Bhai has qualities you will hardly get in today’s politicians,” said Sharafat Hussain, a local businessman.

Source : Times of India