Mangal Prabhat Lodha : Auspicious combination of custom, culture, moral value and service - Shweta Parulekar

Of course, the result obtained after tireless effort is really blissful. Moreover, instead of enjoying the result of success alone, distributing it in the society, and sharing the joy together with the society is the best example of cultured life. It is sign of a visionary person, who believe that along with personal growth, there also should be growth of the society as well as the nation. And when that person lands in politics, he changes the common perception about politics as promoting ideals to uphold the moral values of great Indian culture and society becomes his motto. Advocate Mangal Prabhat Lodha is one such amazing personality, who has fully dedicated himself to strengthen the brotherhood and harmony in the society while propagating the ideology of Hindutva.

Born in Jodhpur, Mangal Prabhat Lodha joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood. His father Gumanmal Lodha was a well-known lawyer of his era and the president of the Rajasthan unit of Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Later, Gumanmal Lodha was elected MLA from Bharatiya Jana Sangh from Jodhpur. He also did remarkable work as the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. Following father's footsteps, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the son of Gumanmal Lodha, joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh when he was in school and became first year educated volunteer of great organization lke RSS which has been promoting rich Hindu tradition and life style. Patriotism and loyalty towards Hindu religion were nurtured in his nature and personality from the very childhood. This seed of custom, culture, melioration and sacrament were implanted inside Mangal ji by his parents in his very childhood. While discharging his responsivities as an activist of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Jodhpur University, he was the General Secretary of Jodhpur zone. Later he joined the Navnirman Aandolan in 1975 and worked closely with Jayaprakash Narayan as a student leader in the Jodhpur division.

After completing his studies, i.e, getting Batcheler's in commerce and Law, young Mangal Prabhat had started practicing in the Jaipur High Court. But in 1977, when his father inducted as a judge in the Jodhpur High Court, he left the practice as a lawyer as his cultured mind did not consider it appropriate to practice in that court where his father is Honorable Judge. Mangal Prabhat Lodha arrived to Mumbai, a city of dreamers across India from Jodhpur. In Mumbai he did service in a firm for four years. While working in firm, Mangal ji remained active on the social arena and actively associated the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. In mid of 1980s, when Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Aandolan was kicked off, Mangal ji chant Jai Shri Ram and participated prominently in the movement. In early of 1990s he also went to holy city of Ayodhya, where he was placed under arrest by then anti-Hindu government. When the Shri Ram Janmbhumi-Babri Masjid disputed structure was demolished, Mangal Prabhat was also included in the team of karsevaks for the karseva. Later Mangal Prabhat Lodha joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Sheshadri Chari, the then BJP's organization secretary. He was given responsibility of the BJP president of the Walkeshwar unit during the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan and was later appointed as the district vice-president of BJP south Mumbai unit. This was the time when the unbroken political journey of Mangal Prabhat Lodha gained momentum and he participated prominently in several movements.

Mangal Prabhat Lodha kicked off a movement to change the name of Victoria Terminus railway station to the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. His movement later became a mass movement and every nationalist could not prevent himself or herself to join the movement. Even today, several cases are pending against Mangal ji for stopping the train at Grant Road station during the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement in a court of law. A case was also registered against him along with 18 karsevaks as he dared to enter the Chief Minister's office during the Shri Ram Mandir Aandolan and perform Shila Pujan. The case is pending even till date. In mid of 1990s Mangal ji landed in real estate and started the building construction work with very small capital and fter that he never looked back. During these periods, Mangal Prabhat continued to work actively as a worker of Vishwa Hindu Parishad as well as BJP.

In 1995, he was asked by the BJP high command to contest from Malabar Hill assembly constituency which was Congress dominated constituency as Bharatiya Jana Sangh or BJP could never registered the victory. Even BJP leadership was never expected to win the seat and senior BJP functionaries were satisfied by getting 10-15 thousand votes in every election. But presence of Mangal ji as BJP candidate changed the entire political equations. People's inclination towards Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Aandolan helped Mangal ji as BJP candidate and he was succeeded to make the one-sided contest as a neck-to-neck fight and surprising to all political observers, he finally registered a victory. When counting of vote was completed, Mangal ji was new MLA from the Malabar Hill as he gained 800 plus vote than Congress sitting MLA BA Desai. He became law-maker from law-practitioner and converted the seat as most safe seat for BJP in the state and registered 6th consecutive victory. As MLA he became very active and dedicated himself for the people of Malabar Hill and the victory margin rose from 800 votes in 1995 to 90 thousand in the 2019 elections. Mangal ji has enhanced his credibility among the people and intensified the wave of Hindutva. While thanking his voters, Mangal Prabhat says, "the voters reposed faith in me. Actually, they must have seen the image of an honest leader in me and must have found that politics can be done without selfishness because for me service of voters, their work is the first duty."

Today people are considering the foresight of Mangal Prabhat Lodha as iron. In 1995 itself, Mangal Prabhat Lodha had prepared the draft of Right to Information (RTI) and also raised the issue in the assembly. Apart from this, many service works continued to go on continuously. Be it matters related to the development of Mumbai or any difficulty of the voters, the work of Hindutva and patriotism should continue unabated. Mangal Prabhat Lodha believes that some people who think that only money is earned by coming into politics, hardly anyone would think about this in countries other than India. Be it professors or businessmen, people who come into politics get something; They return it to the society. Mangal Prabhat Lodha says, "from 1995 till today, I have never expected wrong from anyone in politics. I kept walking by awakening the spirit of patriotism. I never asked for any position."

It might be mentioned that Mangal Prabhat Lodha's name appears in the order of seniority in the list of MLAs who have won consecutively from the same party. In his 28-year political career as MLA, despite the formation of the BJP-led government several times, Mangal ji never craved for any position. He continued to work as per the instructions of the party high command. Party has been sending him to Goa, Delhi, Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Kolkata during elections and he stayed at those places for months and worked for the party. Mangal Prabhat Lodha was appointed the Mumbai President of BJP three years ago. During these three years, he re-organized the Mumbai unit and made direct contact with thousands of party workers. Despite adverse circumstances like global pandemic Covid -19 he did social work continuously and extended every possible help to Mumbaikars in tough time. Mumbai BJP office bearers as well as party workers worked non-stop during the lock down. Mangal ji says, "I will fulfill the resolve of serving the nation under great leadership of honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, honorable Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Ji and honorable deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Ji is the Deputy Chief Minister."

Expressing his gratitude towards the people, Mangal Prabhat Lodha says, "The lesson of culture and custom I received in the RSS Shakha is most valuable thing to me and whatever success I have achieved, is due to the values of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. I will try my best to fulfill the expectations of the people which has honored me by giving so big responsibility to serve them." Now the BJP has entrusted the responsibility of ministership to Mangal Prabhat Lodha. Mangal Prabhat Lodha has entered the service work by taking a pledge to work on many issues including providing employment to the youth, infrastructure, changes in the tax system, skill development projects etc.