In 1986, he married a Kerlite Christian, JC George, whom he met during a train trip, just as Shatrughan Sinha loved Poonam on a train journey. He never felt ashamed in the church with George. Atal Bihari Vajpey attended his wedding and proposed to join the BJP.
Sushil Modi was also a famous person among journalists. He was not only known for his broad network, but also for maintaining a close relationship with his friends in the media. He regularly provided the media supported by documentary evidence with ‘Breaking News’. Most of these revelations are related to corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and his family, which range from fodder scam to land-to-land scam in railway.
Very few politicians in the country were well informed, media-friendly, accessible, technology-lovers, Susai and soft-spoken, but Sushil was also energetic as Modi. He was not only in his etiquette and political behavior but also a true discipline in his dressing sense and food habits. He always did a sport Kurta-pajama Sleeen rolled with a darker Band Top button, with her trademark smile.
As a science student during his educational days, Modi never learned economics or commerce. However, he spontaneously managed the finance of the entire state and brought it to the right path in his ability, along with being the longest service minister in the state. An old colleague, Prem Kumar Mani, says that Sushil Modi used to learn the complicated finance by spending time with experts on related topics.
He was sidelined and sent to Rajya Sabha in 2020 through a by -election for less than four years. The faction-reds Bihar BJP accused him of becoming Nitish Kumar’s Kotri and accused him and his associates of being a B-Team of the Janata Dal (United). When the writer once asked for a comment on this, Sushil Modi said that he did only what the party leadership had instructed to do him and he would continue to discharge his duties responsibly.
(Faizan Ahmed is a multilingual journalist who has worked in English, Hindi and Urdu publications with more than three decades. With a master’s degree from Patna University, he has worked with Times of India, The Telegraph, Pioneer, Outlook, Sunday, Tehelka, and Locat Times.
