PATNA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday launched a blistering attack on INDIA bloc saying the latter wanted to take back Bihar to ‘lantern era’ as the state was converted into a ‘jungle raj’ under the Lalu-Rabri government earlier.
He charged the Congress-led opposition with being soft on terror and indifferent towards the uplift of deprived castes, and alleged that their return to power could cause “riots, atrocities and poverty”.
Addressing an election rally in Bihar’s Katihar Lok Sabha constituency, Shah said it was NDA government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar that pulled Bihar out from ‘jungle raj’ (lawlessness) and put development work in the state on track.
He alleged that the poor, backward, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were all subjected to atrocities during the RJD-Congress rule. Ever since NDA government came to power and Nitish became CM, atrocities against everyone have stopped, he added.
He said the NDA government under the leadership of Nitish Kumar provided electricity to every village and every house and also built roads, but Opposition ‘INDI Alliance’ wants to take Bihar back to the ‘lantern era’ and oppress people belonging to OBCs.
The Union minister said that PM Narendra Modi has brought a huge transformation in the lives of the poor. He has worked towards annihilating ‘parivarvaad’ (dynastic politics), casteism, and appeasement.
Reminding people of the Lalu-Rabri regime, Shah said the RJD chief and Congress were together fighting the election against BJP and JD(U), which have done a lot for state’s development and state was progressing under ‘double engine’ government.
“Today he (Lalu) is sitting with the Congress party, I want to tell him (Lalu) that the same Congress party had opposed backward classes, suppressed the Kakasaheb Kalelkar Commission report, and opposed the Mandal Commission report as well,” Shah said.
“We made a poor tea seller’s son the PM. Modi ji has made 35% backward and extremely backward MPs as ministers in his cabinet and has worked on adding 16 new castes to OBC. We gave free ration to over 80 lakh people, built more than 12 crore toilets,” Shah added.
