PATNA: The political turf war between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav turned more intense and personal on Thursday when Yadav accused Kumar of “snooping” into his activities and infringing on his privacy by installing a CCTV camera over a boundary wall of the CM’s residence.
As Yadav, who is the younger son of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, targeted Kumar by posting a series of tweets on the matter, several RJD leaders joined him in attacking the chief minister. Leaders of the ruling JD(U) and BJP hit back at Tejashwi for levelling “baseless allegations” and trying to befool the public.
The 5, Desh Ratna Marg bungalow occupied by Yadav, 29, stands just behind the 7, Circular Road bungalow that serves as the unofficial residence of Kumar, who is also JD(U) national president and lives mostly at the chief minister’s official residence at 1, Anne Marg nearby. Recently appointed JD(U) vice-president and former poll strategist Prasahnt Kishor functions out of the 7, Circular Road bungalow.
A CCTV camera fixed atop a boundary wall of the 7, Circular Road bungalow that faces Yadav’s bungalow got his goat. “Is this Nitishjee’s paranoia for security or many other insecurities, frustrations & apprehensions that he has put a CCTV camera right on the boundary wall between his & my residence to snoop over? Why does the CM need a camera though there is a permanent security check post?” tweeted Yadav along with a photo of the camera atop the wall.
“Bihar govt must tighten the security whenever required for the CM who already has Z+ category and even resides in high-security zone. But is it preferable to install high-resolution HD CCTV cameras facing, snooping and interfering the privacy of neighbour?” he said in another tweet.
Calling Kumar an “autocratic, insecure CM,” Yadav accused him of “snooping into the day-to-day activities of the Opponents & infringing their privacy” rather than taking steps to rein in the spiraling crime graph in Bihar. Yadav also asked why a “self-proclaimed austere CM of a poor state” should have two bungalows in Patna and one in New Delhi.
“Only Tejashwi Yadav can issue such baseless allegations. He should not worry about the CCTV camera. It has not been put in his bedroom. He seems worried that criminals coming to meet him would be caught in this CCTV camera,” said JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh. “Tejashwi was himself born in the lap of crime… He has studied only up to the ninth class, and these tweets, which are in English, are not written by him,” added Singh.
BJP leader Nitin Navin said: “Tejashwi Yadav is forgetting the reign of terror across Bihar during RJD rule, but the people of Bihar have not forgotten. He is trying hard to make a mountain out of a molehill”.