Jungle Raj, Mangal Raj Debate Goes on

PATNA:Blaming the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance for Bihar’s backwardness, Finance Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday warned the electorate of a return to “anarchy and jungle raj” if it was voted to power but predicted a defeat for the coalition, saying a “three-legged race cannot be run or won”.

Jaitley said the Congress ruled Bihar for 40 years, RJD for 15, and JD(U) for 10 years, and all these parties were responsible for its backwardness. Jaitley, whose party was an alliance partner of the JD(U) for a major part over the past decade, was talking to reporters after releasing the vision document of the party and outlining its development plans.

“This span of time is very long....the face of Bihar could have been changed during this period, but it was not to be,” Jaitley said slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the same parties which had ‘ruined’ Bihar.

Apparently seeking to give a clean chit to the BJP for any lack of development in the state during the NDA rule, the Finance Minister said his party was only a junior partner in the Nitish government for seven-and-a-half years.

Nitish Kumar countered the charge of “jungle raj” and quoted figures from the National Crime Record Bureau to demonstrate that more crime had taken place in BJP-ruled states.  Kumar said according to the NCRB’s latest report for 2014 more crimes had taken place in the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, than in Bihar, and wondered if a “mangal raj” prevailed there. The JD(U) leader was addressing an election rally at Samastipur and Begusarai districts.  He said at the national level there were 229 heinous crimes per one lakh population in 2014. The figure for Delhi, whose law and order is controlled by the Central government, is 764, he pointed out.

In Madhya Pradesh, the crime data was 358, Haryana 258, Chhattisgarh 229 and Gujarat 213 in 2014, Kumar said quoting the NCRB report. “On the other hand, the crime figure for Bihar in the same report is 174 per one lakh population. Bihar figures at 22nd position,” he said. 

EC issues notices to sushil, Lalu

The Election Commission on Thursday issued notices to RJD president Lalu Prasad and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in connection with FIRs registered against them for violation of the poll code. The two leaders have been asked in the notices to submit their reply by October 6. An FIR was lodged against Lalu for making casteist remarks and against Sushil for making populist promises.