PATNA: Tejaswi Yadav today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar during a rally in the West Champaran district where he kicked off his ‘Janadesh Apaman’ campaign, protesting JD(U)-BJP alliance, which was cemented last month.
He claimed that the rally, inaugurated on the 75th anniversary of Quit India Movement, would eventually lead to the “miserable defeat” of both JD(U) and BJP in the state. He dared both Kumar and Modi to arrest him.
“If they have faith in the allegations leveled against me, they should arrest me. I dare them to arrest me,” said Tejaswi, whose refusal to quit as the state's deputy chief minister after CBI registered a corruption case against him, prompted Nitish Kumar to abandon the JD(U)-RJD alliance and form a government with BJP on July 27.
Accompanied by his elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav who is a former health minister, and several MLAs of RJD, Tejaswi began his campaign with a prayer meeting at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Motihari.
“I apologize to the father of the nation for allying with Nitish Kumar and believing in him. He abandoned the principles of secularism and social justice and landed in the lap of the communal forces like BJP and RSS,” said Tejaswi.
“I did not know he (Kumar) would join hands with Mahatma Gandhi's killers. I have come here to seek forgiveness from Bapu for the blunder I committed… We will propagate your (Gandhi’s) message of brotherhood and peace across the country,” he added.
Just three months ago, both Tejaswi and Kumar had shared the stage at the venue when the state government observed the centenary of Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha movement.
“We will fight against these people who follow Nathuram Godse’s ideology of hatred and violence. These people have imposed a dictatorship in the country and have been conducting the politics of vendetta, violence while stroking hatred between communities,” said Tejaswi, without naming Narendra Modi.
In his 45-minute speech before a large crowd that was gathered on the grounds of a girls’ high school in Madhopur, Tejaswi claimed: “RSS and BJP” were conspiring to abolish reservation for backward castes and minorities. The RJD sources said the leader, seen as the party’s chief ministerial candidate, plans to revive his father’s Mandal politics in a bid to keep BJP and JD(U) out of power in Bihar.
“Nitish Kumar, who himself faces a murder case and was recently fined by the Delhi High Court in a copyright violation case, has not only backstabbed me but also the people of Bihar by allying with the BJP. We will not let their dirty designs succeed,” he said.
The BJP and JD(U) leaders ridiculed Tejaswi and his yatra. “This yatra is nothing but Tejaswi’s histrionics to conceal his and his family’s huge benami assets. Bihar’s people know that their mandate in the 2015 Assembly polls was not for fulfilling Lalu and his family’s unbridled greed,” said deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP.