Manoj Jha: Delhi University professor turned RJD voice in the Rajya Sabha

Overview

Manoj Kumar Jha is an Indian academic-turned-parliamentarian: a professor of social work at the University of Delhi and national spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) who has been a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar since April 2018, served as the joint opposition’s candidate for Deputy Chairman in 2020, and began a second term in April 2024 (The Indian Express; Business Standard).

Jha is best known as the opposition’s debating voice on social justice: he frames the caste census as a first step toward wider reservation and representation, and his 2025 essay collection defends coalition politics against what he calls a decade of majoritarian rule (The News Mill; The Week). In December 2023 he was among the Rajya Sabha MPs suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session during the mass suspensions over the Parliament security breach (The Telegraph).

This profile is about the RJD parliamentarian and Delhi University professor — not any film-industry or other namesake.

The professor in Parliament: social work as politics

Jha’s academic career is unusually well documented for a parliamentarian. His University of Delhi CV records an M.A. in Social Work in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Social Work in 2000, both from Delhi University; a lectureship at Jamia Millia Islamia from 1994 to 2002; Associate Professor at Delhi University from 2002 to 2014; and Professor from 2014 onward, including heading the Department of Social Work from 2014 to 2017 (University of Delhi). The Indian Express and Lokmat independently confirm the professorship and the 2014–2017 department headship (The Indian Express; Lokmat Times).

His specializations — minority–majority relations, social movements and political social work, state and political economy, and conflict mitigation and peace building — read like a preview of his parliamentary agenda, and the papers he taught included State, Political Economy & Government, Social Action and Social Movements, and Conflict Mitigation and Peace Building (University of Delhi). His early books show the same through-line: Peace is Possible (Oxfam-GB, 2007), Understanding Political Discourse (UNAIDS, 2008), and Riots as Rituals and In Opposition to Silence (both 2009) (University of Delhi). He also led an Indian Council of Social Science Research project on educational and vocational aspirations among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students in an underdeveloped district of Chhattisgarh (University of Delhi).

Jha entered the Rajya Sabha in 2018 — elected unopposed on 15 March, taking his seat on 3 April — as the RJD’s academic face in the Upper House (Lokmat Times; University of Delhi). In March 2023 he received the Lokmat Parliamentary Award as Best Debutant Parliamentarian, presented by former President Ram Nath Kovind, with a jury headed by Sharad Pawar (Lokmat Times).

The 2020 Deputy Chairman contest: a symbolic candidacy

Jha’s highest-profile moment came in September 2020, when the opposition chose him as its joint candidate for Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (The Indian Express). The Congress had decided the post should not go uncontested; after the name of DMK MP Tiruchi Siva was also discussed, opposition leaders settled on a leader from Bihar, with the Bihar Assembly elections approaching, and the Congress secured the RJD leadership’s agreement (The Indian Express). The arithmetic was never in his favour: the BJP held 87 seats in the 245-member House and the NDA more than a hundred (The Indian Express).

Jha framed the contest as principled rather than personal. In a letter to fellow MPs after filing his nomination, he wrote that political opposition is a “critical and moral force in the nation” and that the election was about two different versions of parliamentary democracy: one that sees it only as a numbers game, and another that places importance on critique, discussion, and consensus building (The Indian Express). On 14 September 2020, in the 2020 Deputy Chairman election, the incumbent Harivansh Narayan Singh was re-elected by voice vote and the opposition did not ask for a division (The Hindu). Jha’s candidacy thus achieved its stated purpose — forcing a contest of visions rather than a coronation — while confirming the opposition’s minority: a symbolic loss that still put his “numbers game versus consensus” framing on the record.

Contest	Jha’s position	Outcome
Deputy Chairman election, 14 September 2020	Joint opposition candidate (RJD)	Lost by voice vote; opposition did not seek a division
Rajya Sabha, Bihar, 2024	RJD nominee, second term	Elected unopposed; oath 3 April 2024
Lokmat Parliamentary Award, 2023	Nominee, debutant category	Won Best Debutant Parliamentarian

(The table distills The Indian Express, The Hindu, Business Standard, and Lokmat accounts.)

Second term: suspension, caste census, and a book

Jha’s second term began with confrontation. On 18 December 2023, during the Winter Session, he was among 34 Rajya Sabha MPs suspended for the remainder of the session after opposition members disrupted proceedings demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the 13 December Parliament security breach; The Wire counted him among more than 145 MPs suspended from Parliament across the session (The Telegraph; The Wire). Weeks later, the RJD renominated him for a second term — a choice The Wire read as proof of the party’s uncompromising stance against the Modi–Shah government — and he was elected unopposed with five other Bihar candidates, taking his oath on 3 April 2024, administered by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar (The Wire; Business Standard).

His signature issue has been the caste census. In May 2025, after the Centre decided to include caste data in the national census, Jha called it a crucial first step toward social justice and pressed further: the scope of reservation should increase, there should be provision for reservation in the private sector, and backward classes should gain adequate representation through redistribution of seats in Parliament and state assemblies (The News Mill). In August 2025 he published an updated essay collection, In Praise of Coalition Politics: And Other Essays on Indian Democracy (Speaking Tiger, Rs 399), including two of his Rajya Sabha speeches and a foreword by former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, examining India’s democracy “after a decade of majoritarian rule” across the caste census, minority welfare, federalism, the rise of Hindutva, and Kashmir (The Week). Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is the implied target throughout — Jha’s politics, like his scholarship, is organized around the argument that plurality and debate, not uniformity, are India’s strength.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Manoj Jha? Manoj Kumar Jha is a Delhi University social-work professor and the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s national spokesperson who has been a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar since April 2018. He was the joint opposition’s candidate for Deputy Chairman in 2020 and began a second term in 2024.

What did Manoj Jha do before politics? He was an academic: lecturer at Jamia Millia Islamia (1994–2002), then Associate Professor (2002–2014) and Professor (2014 onward) at Delhi University, where he headed the Department of Social Work from 2014 to 2017. He also authored books on riots, peace, and political discourse.

What happened in Manoj Jha’s 2020 Deputy Chairman contest? He stood as the joint opposition candidate against the NDA’s Harivansh Narayan Singh. He lost by voice vote on 14 September 2020, with the opposition not seeking a division. Jha framed the contest as a choice between democracy as a numbers game and democracy as critique and consensus.

Why was Manoj Jha suspended in December 2023? He was among 34 Rajya Sabha MPs suspended for the remainder of the Winter Session on 18 December 2023, after opposition members disrupted proceedings demanding a Home Minister statement on the 13 December Parliament security breach. The suspensions were part of a session-wide crackdown across both Houses.

What is Manoj Jha’s position on the caste census? He calls the caste census a crucial first step toward social justice, and wants the reservation scope expanded, reservation provided in the private sector, and backward classes given greater representation through redistribution of seats in Parliament and in the state assemblies across the country.

Timeline

• 1992 — M.A. in Social Work, University of Delhi (University of Delhi CV).
• 1994 — Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia (University of Delhi CV).
• 2000 — Ph.D. in Social Work, University of Delhi (University of Delhi CV).
• 2002 — Associate Professor, University of Delhi (University of Delhi CV).
• 2014 — Professor and Head, Department of Social Work, University of Delhi (University of Delhi CV).
• 2018 — Elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar; takes seat 3 April (Lokmat).
• 2020 — Joint opposition candidate for Deputy Chairman; loses by voice vote, 14 September (The Indian Express; The Hindu).
• 2023 — Lokmat Best Debutant Parliamentarian award; suspended for remainder of Winter Session, 18 December (Lokmat; The Telegraph).
• 2024 — Re-elected unopposed for a second term; oath 3 April (Business Standard).
• 2025 — Publishes In Praise of Coalition Politics; presses caste-census follow-through (The Week; The News Mill).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert Jha’s birth date or birthplace; tertiary sources give 5 August 1967, Saharsa, but no fully-read citable source in this pass verified them.
• It does not resolve the Thursday-versus-Friday discrepancy in reports of his 2020 nomination filing; it says only that he filed ahead of the 14 September vote.
• It does not treat “nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2018” as presidential nomination; the nomination was by his party, and he was elected unopposed.
• It does not cover the 2023 cancellation of his Delhi University lecture; that episode rests on lower-tier reports not read in full here.
• It does not claim his suspension ended his parliamentary activity; suspension applied to the remainder of the Winter Session only.
• It does not evaluate the effectiveness of his caste-census advocacy; it reports his stated positions and the Centre’s 2025 decision without claiming causation.

Sources

• The Indian Express — Oppn parties may field RJD MP Manoj Jha in election for RS Deputy Chairman post (tier1; 2020 candidacy, arithmetic, academic background)
• The Indian Express — Manoj Jha files nomination for Rajya Sabha Dy Chairman post (tier1; nomination letter, two-versions-of-democracy framing)
• The Hindu — NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh re-elected as Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman (tier1; 14 September 2020 voice-vote outcome)
• Lokmat Times — Lokmat Parliamentary Award: Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha receives best debutant Parliamentarian award (tier2; 2023 award, 2018 election date, education, department headship)
• The Telegraph — Parliament Winter Session | At least 45 Opposition MPs suspended from Rajya Sabha (tier1; December 2023 suspension)
• The Wire — Rajya Sabha Nominations Indicate RJD’s Uncompromising Stance Against Modi-Shah Regime (tier2; 2024 renomination, suspension session total, political characterization)
• Business Standard — RJD leader Manoj Jha takes oath as RS MP for 2nd term alongside 6 others (tier1; second-term oath, unopposed Bihar slate)
• The Week (PTI) — Manoj Jha reflects on democracy federalism and Hindutva in new book (tier2; 2025 book, themes, foreword, price)
• The News Mill (ANI) — “Make provision for reservation in “private sector”: RJD’s Manoj Jha on caste census (tier2; May 2025 caste-census position)
• University of Delhi — Curriculum Vitae — Prof. Manoj Jha (first-party; CV facts only)