In a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said that the publicity of only one person is being carried out in the country and there are only two leaders calling the shots in the Centre.
Without mentioning the names of Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah, he asserted that whenever the BJP leaders come to Bihar, they only attack him. Mr. Kumar said this while laying the foundation stone of a medical college and hospital with the capacity of 630 beds in Munger district.
“Publicity of only one person is being carried out and no one else. There are only two leaders in the Centre and only their speeches are published. He [Mr. Modi] is not bothered about poor States. The leaders of his party were earlier nice but now they are being controlled by them and speak against me. These people think that they are the only one and rest are no one,” Mr. Kumar said while addressing a public meeting.
Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Munger MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh were also present.
Demand for special category status
Mr. Kumar also reiterated the demand to grant special category status to Bihar from the Centre and said that if the demand would not be met then, he would launch a campaign to mobilise support for it. He further added that once Bihar gets the status of special category, then work would be completed in the next two years instead of five years from the State’s resources.
The Chief Minister pointed out that initially he had requested the Union government to conduct a caste census but once the Centre refused to do so, then the Bihar government did a caste-based survey on its own and data has also been released. He also added that based on that data, reservation in the State has been increased from 50% to 65% in government jobs and educational institutions. The 10% reservation was already given to economically weaker sections (EWS) to upper castes in general categories making it a total of 75% reservation.
‘Throttling media’
“We are the ones who are actually working in Bihar but leaders of Delhi just talk and we are not bothered about them. I have done a lot of work in Bihar but the media people are not allowed to work freely and write about me because they get orders from Delhi not to write the work I am doing in Bihar,” Mr. Kumar said.
The senior JD(U) leader also urged the people of Munger to elect Mr. Singh and ensure his victory in the next Lok Sabha election from the constituency.
Deptuty CM Yadav too did not miss the opportunity to attack the Central government alleging that people at the Centre are doing no work and only engaged in telling lies for vote bank politics.
“The public are the real masters and they only decide who wins and loses the election. You all have seen the work and I will urge you to give your blessing for the work Nitish ji has done for Bihar. There are leaders who come from Delhi and Gujarat, speak lies and return,” Mr. Yadav said.
