Prime Minister Narendra Modi trained his guns at his two political bête noire second time in a fortnight and warned the people that the jungle raj part II will destroy Bihar if they were voted to power. Addressing a mammoth rally at Gandhi Maidan in Gaya on Sunday, about 100 km south west from Patna, Modi said time is coming for the people to drive out the people who kept Bihar under the jungle raj, darkness and backwardness for 25 years.
He was referring to the 15 years of lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi and ten years of Nitish Kumar even though his party (BJP) had been a partner in power with Nitish for seven years. But Modi clubbed 15 years and ten years and alleged that for 25 years Bihar remained in disarray and chaos. “The time is coming for the freedom from those who for 25 years repressed the people and ruled with arrogance,” said Modi.
Though he did not repeat his DNA remark against Nitish which he had hurled at him in Muzaffarpur a fortnight ago, Modi gave a new definition of JD(U). “JDU means janata ka Daman (repression) aur utpiran (misery),” he said.The PM had dubbed he RJD as “rozana jungle raj ka darr.”Sharpening his attack on Nitish and lalu, he held them responsible for the overall deterioration and backwardness of Bihar. “I don’t know who is Bhujang Prasad and who is Chandan Kumar and who gulped down poison, but I know that after election they will vomit poison and this poison will fall in the plates of Biharis,” he said in an oblique reference to Nitish’s last fortnight tweet quoting Rahim’s couplet: “Jo Rahim uttam prakriti, ka kari sakat kusung, chandan vish vyapat nahi, lipte rahat bhujang.”
He added, “With the return of the jungle raj will come an era of poisonous atmosphere.”
Modi will continue his Bihar visit and will hold two more rallies in the next 20 days, first at Saharsa on August 18 and then in Bhagalpur on August 30.
In his 45 minutes address, Modi said Delhi has ensured ‘Vikas ki Ganga’ but the ruler of Bihar is refusing to seek the aid out of arrogance by putting the bowl upside down so that Bihar should not prosper and dragged towards the jungle raj.
Even as the BJP has not declared its CM candidate, Modi asked people to form the NDA Government which, he said, would be “headed by Ram Vials Paswan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Upendra Kushwaha and Sushil Kumar Modi.”“In jungle raj-I there was no experience of jail but in jungle raj-II there will be experience of jail and you know what people learn in jail,” he said in a reference to conviction and jail term of lalu that also made him disqualified to contest election.
From among the BIMARU States, Modi said, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the BJP is in power, have come out and declared that in five years under the NDA rule Bihar will also come out of this category. He exhorted people, “Take a pledge to ensure a NDA Government here to make Bihar free from Jungle Raj, anarchy and darkness.”
In his speech Modi also made reference of the murder of a BJP functionary in Patna three days ago, darkness which he said was brought by lalten wallah and false promises by Nitish for electricity, tourism potential of Bodh Gaya and bomb blasts in the temple city two years ago. Asserting that only the NDA could change Bihar’s destiny for the better, Modi said education, a key ingredient for economic progress, had been neglected during the last 25 years.
“There are 80 lakh people in Bihar who are aged between 17 and 20 years. They need technical education and skill development. But there are only 25,000 engineering seats in Bihar, against 1.13 lakh in neighbouring Odisha, 1.04 lakh in a smaller state like Punjab and 40,000 in tiny Uttarakhand,” he said, adding, people of the State have only suffered “arrogance and deceit” over the last 25 years.
Modi said around four lakh Bihari students were studying in engineering colleges in other States resulting in a loss of about Rs 4,000 crore to Bihar every year. He also attacked Kumar for not “walking with Delhi” for State’s development because of his “arrogance”.“There is swift flow of water in the Ganga but since the head of the State is holding the ‘lota ulta’ it is not reaching there,” he said in a veiled attack on Kumar.
Referring to Bihar’s immense potential for growth of tourism, he said nothing was happening because of “vote bank politics”.“I recently visited a number of Asian countries. Even leaders of countries having communist rule voiced eagerness to visit Bodh Gaya. People across the country want to pay obeisance to their forefathers by doing ‘pind daan’ in Gaya. Reports of bomb blasts deter them from coming here. No efforts have been made to develop Bodh Gaya after the blasts. Those who believe in vote bank politics hardly care,” he said.
Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah said decades ago Mahatma Gandhi gave the call on August 9 for the British to quit India. “Today, people of Bihar should give a call for those responsible for jungle raj to quit,” he said.“Vandalism during the recent bandh call given by lalu Prasad (on July 27 for release of caste census report) resonated the return of jungle raj in the State,” he said.
Over half a dozen Union Ministers and senior BJP leaders apart from Jitan Ram Manjhi also spoke but before the arrival of Modi on the stage. The Maoists had given a call for Magadh bandh to coincide with PM’s visit but it evoked partial response.
