Tejashwi challenges Shah for debate on Bihar

PATNA, April 1: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a debate on the contributions of his party in the development of Bihar, in comparison with the BJP-led NDA which has been ruling the state for the last couple of decades.
At a press conference here, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar charged Shah, who addressed a rally in Gopalganj two days ago, with targeting his father Lalu Prasad, the RJD’s founding president.
“Let Amit Shah leave Lalu ji alone and engage with me. I am ready for a public debate with him at a time and a place he decides,” the leader of the opposition said.
Yadav claimed that the central assistance secured for Bihar by his father, who was a member of the Congress-led NDA, was far greater than the help from the current regime.
“Shah bragged that a temple of Goddess Sita would be built in Bihar, unaware that it already exists and while I was in power, money was sanctioned for its beautification,” Yadav said.
“BJP leaders are fond of saying ‘jungle raj’. They should realise that the expression was used by the Patna High Court while reprimanding the municipal authorities here, which were under the control of the BJP even when the RJD was ruling the state,” he added.
“Shah’s visit to Bihar was part of the BJP’s strategy to bombard Bihar with its top leaders ahead of the assembly polls due later this year. I had predicted it soon after the Delhi elections were over… elections will be announced in Bihar as soon as the BJP, which rules the Centre, gives the nod to the Election Commission,” he alleged.
Yadav also ridiculed Shah for slip-ups at the rally in the home district of the RJD supremo, where the former BJP chief had alleged that “Lalu Prasad got his brother elected to the legislature”.
Often accused of “dynasty rule”, Prasad, whose wife and at least three children are members of either Parliament or state legislature, also had six siblings, though none of them entered politics.
“Clearly Amit Shah has no regard for facts… while pointing fingers at us over nepotism (parivarvaad), why do they not speak, in the same vein, of their own allies like Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi?” Yadav asked.
The RJD leader also alleged that Paswan and Manjhi, besides Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, all NDA partners, “pretend to be ideologically committed” but were reluctant to take a stand on the Waqf Bill.
He also reminded Paswan, a Union minister, of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, who “resigned from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet in protest against Gujarat riots and undertook a train journey to Pakistan along with my father”.
Yadav also highlighted his own presence, as also that of his father “despite ill health”, at a demonstration staged here last week by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
The RJD leader was also asked about a social media post by his party in which a photograph of a “review meeting”, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour of Madhubani scheduled next month, was shared with the claim that it marked an “exit plan” for Nitish Kumar.
At the meeting, those present included Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who is a senior BJP leader, and Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who is a former JD(U) president.
Yadav insisted, “Of course, it is an issue that deserves to be raised. Never before have we seen a meeting, where chief secretary and DGP are present, being chaired by any person other than the CM.” (PTI)