Thursday, May 02, 2024 | Last Update : 03:43 PM IST
BJP boycotts freedom fighter meet
Rajnath pulls out over Lalu, Rahul sharing dais with Pranab, stirs row.
Patna: The BJP and its alliance partners on Monday boycotted the Bihar government’s programme to honour freedom fighters after Union home minister Rajnath Singh cancelled his trip at the last minute.
According to BJP insiders, the senior Union minister was not happy after he was informed that RJD chief Lalu Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will also share the dais.
President Pranab Mukherjee felicitated freedom fighters at the event. Fifteen freedom fighters from across the country attended the event organised in Patna to mark the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha.
Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav were present during the function.
Blaming chief minister Nitish Kumar for politicising the event, BJP leader Mangal Pandey said, “Our leaders invited to attend the programme with Lalu Yadav, convicted in fodder scam case. How can the state government make someone facing serious corruption charges share the dais with the President at such a solemn function?”
“Nitish are you insulting or felicitating freedom fighters by inviting Lalu convict in scam & Rahul on bail in NH case?,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted, criticising Mr Gandhi for attending the programme.
Criticising the BJP for trying to politicise Mahatma Gandhi, Mr Yadav said, “They only do hate politics. Earlier they had agreed to attend the event but when they learnt that we (Lalu and Rahul) are also attending the event, they decided to stay away. We will jointly stop the ideology of BJP once again like we had done in Bihar,” the RJD chief said.
He said that the decision to form an alliance in Bihar was taken to spread the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and discussions with other like-minded parties are on to form a larger alliance at the national level.
“We formed the grand alliance in Bihar to spread the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and to save the country from the hate politics,” he said.
