Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, under attack from the Opposition over rising crime, on Saturday said that the BJP was trying to “defame the government through their allegations of jungle raj”.
Hitting out at the NDA for boycotting the Assembly session, he said, “They look for excuses to disrupt the House. We are here to discuss important public interest issues today but they are not concerned.”
Mr Kumar’s hard-hitting statement against the NDA came during his reply to the debate on the governor’s address. The Opposition had boycotted the Assembly session on Saturday which, according to BJP members, was called “because the chief minister wanted to monitor the Union Budget on Monday”.
The chief minister, while replying to allegations made by members of the NDA over deteriorating law and order situation, told the House that crime figures being presented by the Opposition were not true as the crime rates in other states were much higher than that of Bihar.
“I don’t want to use unparliamentary phrase for them. Jhooth ka pulinda (heap of lies), but at this point it would be appropriate to say that all their allegations and crime figures are baseless,” he said.
Refuting the Opposition’s allegations of being soft on criminals, he said that strict action is being taken against the offenders and no one will be spared. While responding on the issue of RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, accused of raping a minor girl, he said, “No matter how far he runs he will not be spared.”
While claiming that the state government was working on a strategy to control crime by setting up round the helpline he raked up the issue of JNUSU President Kanhiaya Kumar’s arrest and attack on him inside Patiala House Court premises.
“They say that there is Jungle Raj in Bihar and what would they call the incident which happened in Patiala house court, was it mangalraj”, he said.
Targeting opposition further he said that the BJP and RSS were trying to impose their ideology on people and those who refuse to follow it are being declared anti – national, “Their rastrawad (natonalism) is RSS waad, they are fascist like Hitler but no one wants certificate from them. People will not tolerate their brand of nationalism”.
He also attacked the BJP on the issue Rohith Vemula, he said “they first raised questions on his identity and said that he was not Dalit. Centre’s policy and BJP leaders played a big role in forcing him to commit suicide”.
While speaking on the issue he said that “the BJP and RSS through their divisive agenda are trying to hide failures of Modi government. They have been exposed, Country is going through a bad phase financially and conditions of banks are not good. They must fulfil their promises made to public during elections as they are losing their support base face”.
