Resuming his poll campaign in Bihar with four back-to-back rallies ahead of the third phase on October 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday rode the developmental plank to reach out to the masses. But at the same time, he also did not miss out on utilising the tantrik video in circulation to accuse the Nitish-lalu combine of harbouring an “18th Century mindset” and maintain that only democracy will save Bihar and no tantrik. He went on to term RJD as the Rashtriya Jaadu-Tona Dal.
Addressing four meetings at Marhaura in Saran, Hajipur in Vaishali, Biharsharif in Nalanda and Naubatpur in Patna district, he hit hard at his adversaries and blamed the Congress, RJD and JD(U) —the Mahagathbandhan allies — for the State’s overall backwardness. He also played the cards of his backward caste and childhood as a poor tea-seller.
Modi said he has a three-point mantra for Bihar’s progress, bijli (power), paani (water) and sadak (road) and another set of three mantras for the welfare of each family in Bihar, padhai (education), kamai (job) and dawai (medical care). “This mantra will change the destiny of Bihar,” he said amid much applause at each of his crowded meetings.
Taking a cue from a video clip showing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being hugged by a tantrik which went viral on the social media on Saturday, Modi sarcastically addressed the Chief Minister (CM) as “lok-tantrik Nitish babu” at all his meetings. RJD supremo lalu Prasad, who had commented that he was the biggest tantrik, was addressed as “param adarniye”. He also dubbed lalu-Nitish as “bada bhai” and “chhota bhai.”
The Prime Minister (PM) said the Maha Swarth Bandhan (grand opportunist alliance) has four players, namely Nitish, lalu, Sonia and the tantrik. “If lalu is practising tantra-mantra by sacrificing black pigeons and burning red peppers he should also change the name of his party to Rashtriya Jaadu-Tona Dal (RJD),” said Modi adding, “Can a Bihar of the 21st century be made with those carrying forth the thinking of the 18th centuryIJ The youth of Bihar don’t need tantra-mantra but computers.”
He also recalled a recent incident of lalu giving a dressing down to an electrician at a meeting. “In a democracy lalu is behaving like a king by threatening the mike wallah with dire consequences. This reminded me of my childhood days when I used to sell tea in train compartments and sometimes would be assaulted by the passengers. What lalu did is a sheer insult to the poor. That mike wallah belongs to my clan,” the PM said.
In Nitish’s stronghold Nalanda district, he told the people that he belongs to the EBC society and his elevation as PM has angered the Bihar CM because he too was dreaming of becoming the PM. “The chhota bhai and bada bhai are doing poisonous politics of forwards and backwards. They are angry because this chai seller who was born in an EBC family became the PM. That is the reason lalu abuses me, Nitish insults me and Congress tortured me for 14 years,” Modi said in his poll speeches.
About the reservation controversy, the PM reiterated that whatever Ambedkar gave to the deprived section would remain untouched. “In Gujarat, where I was CM for 14 years and in other BJP ruled States reservation continues and nobody can play with this provision. I myself have seen poverty and I am here to protect the rights of the poor,” he announced.
At Marhaura, the PM referred to Balia in UP and its famous son Chandrashekhar, the former PM, and said he was an important leader of the Congress but did not blink in quitting the party and joining the JP movement. Then he referred to Nitish and said he who started his political career with the blessing of JP denounced him and took refuge in the Congress for the sake of power.
He also referred to Siwan and former RJD MP and muscle man Mohd Shahabuddin, languishing in jail, without taking his name and alleged that tickets were distributed from the jail and said that in Siwan there had been reign of terror.
Continuing his tirade against RJD and JD(U) bosses, the PM recalled an undelivered letter written by Nitish to lalu in the early ‘90s and said it was unimaginable that lalu’s supporters tolerated such humiliation of their leader. But in a similar vein, he said lalu was trying to get his son ‘set’ in politics but was making Bihar ‘upset’.