NEW DELHI: The war of words has begun among the key political players in Bihar. On a day when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hit out at the BJP for playing casteist politics, the saffron party hit back saying he was a hypocrite.
Reacting to Nitish’s remark on Amit Shah, where he questioned the BJP chief’s ‘aukat’ (meaning worthiness, here) to be in that position, senior BJP leader and minister Prakash Javadekar shot back, saying those who had accepted RJD chief Lalu Prasad as their leader should tell what was their ‘haisiyat’ (also meaning worthiness).
Javadekar also accused Nitish of being a hypocrite, and said that till the time he was in power with the BJP’s support, RSS was good for him; but now he was speaking against the Sangh. He also pointed out that senior party leader L K Advani who “made” Nitish the chief minister was also an RSS pracharak.
“Nitish Kumar is frustrated and desperate and giving bizarre statements. He has lost his balance and his allegations against us are examples of hypocrisy. His ‘leader’ Lalu Prasad is openly talking about Yadavs voting for him. He took casteism to a new high and Kumar claims that his agenda is development, while BJP is practicing caste politics. This is hypocrisy,” Javadekar said. With Prasad and Kumar attacking BJP over the issue of reservation, he said they should ask their ally Congress to clarify its position on the stand taken by its leaders Jitin Prasada and Manish Tewari, both former ministers, that the existing quota system be reviewed.
“Kumar has knelt down before Congress for 2-4 per cent votes,” he alleged, accusing him of speaking a lie that it was Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi who had asked him to cancel his dinner invite to BJP leaders, including Narendra Modi, in 2010. “He is denying what everybody says. He has crossed all limits,” he said.