BJP’s Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey and controversy go hand in hand. The 54-year-old MP from Jharkhand’s Godda constituency, however, blames people for creating controversies around him.
While he has adroitly managed to put the past storms behind him, the three-term MP has once again landed in the middle of a huge controversy by accusing a fellow parliamentarian of accepting financial favours for asking questions in Parliament. He has accused the firebrand Mahua Moitra, of the Trinamool Congress, of targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani at the behest of vested interests in lieu of favours.
A graduate of the Marwari College of Bhagalpur in Bihar, Nishikant joined the Essar Group as a director at an early age of 23. In 2009, he bid goodbye to the corporate world and debuted in electoral politics. In doing so, he also bid a final goodbye to his father Radhyshayam Dubey’s leftist ideology by contesting on a BJP ticket. Dubey had started drifting away from his father’s politics early in his life by joining the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. He went on to join various right-wing outfits, including noted think-tank Kautilaya Institute of Developmental Studies, with which BJP and Sangh stalwarts such as Arun Jaitely, Govindacharya and others were associated.
During the course of his political progress, he was never far from controversies. He, however, claims “controversy main nahi, log mere sath create karte hain” (I don’t create controversy. It is the people who create them). He has emerged as an articulate and aggressive politician of the saffron pantheon. He has followed a well-crafted strategy of remaining in news by targeting the top opposition leaders within and outside the Parliament.
Emerging as a national political figure helped him win three consecutive elections from Godda. In his political journey, controversy has been his constant companion. Before the current cash-for-query controversy, he was in news when doubts were raised over the authenticity of his degrees mentioned in the affidavits of Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and 2014. Among his chief tormentors has been Mahua Moitra, against whom he has launched the current tirade. Dubey refutes all charges against him in the controversy over his degrees. Doubts were raised by Moitra over Dubey having obtained doctorate in management from Pratap University in Rajasthan on the topic of ‘Emerging Issues of Rural Poverty’. Dubey has termed the charges baseless and unfounded and has challenged his detractors to prove his degrees fake.
Dubey’s rise in stature and respect within his party was evident from the leadership’s decision to field him as the first speaker from the treasury side on the discussion on the landmark Women’s Reservation Bill. The debate was initiated from the opposition side by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He has made a place for himself within his party as a sharp speaker with deep understanding of political issues.
An ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and Shakti (goddess of power), Dubey, reverentially called ‘Baba’ by the people of his constituency, defines politics as ‘desh-seva’ (service to nation) through ‘Janta Seva’ (services of people). But, people remain at their wits’ end trying to understand whether controversy follows him or he follows controversy as hardly a year passes off without him getting mired in one.
Before the current controversy broke out, Dubey, along with his party colleagues and Delhi MP Manoj Tiwary, shot into national news when an FIR was lodged against nine people, including Dubey and Tiwary, for allegedly forcing the Air Traffic Control officials to give clearance for take-off during no-fly time.
Dubey is married to Anamika Gautam, who runs a private company. About 10 years back, a case was lodged against the couple in Delhi for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore from a person known to them.
He owns assets worth Rs 46 crore as per his declaration in the Lok Sabha affidavit in 2019. However, the MP claims to be committed to eradication of poverty through Jan Seva (public service).