Hours after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar concluded his 24-hour fast and dharna on Sunday which was held to register opposition to the land Acquisition Bill, RJD chief lalu Prasad hit the streets on similar issues to protest the ‘breach of trust’ by the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government. The issues that involved lalu’s march to the Raj Bhavan included false promises to bring back black money and generate two crore jobs every year apart from the land Acquisition Bill. Standing on an open jeep with senior leaders Jagdanand Singh and Jaiprakash Yadav besides his elder son Tep Pratap standing behind him, he marched to Raj Bhavan with 200 vehicles and around 10,000 RJD workers following their leader.
lalu said the people have been deceived by Modi, the BJP and the RSS who had snatched their votes by doling out false promises. “They promised to bring back over Rs29 lakh crore stashed in Swiss banks and deposit Rs15 lakh in account of each citizen, including Chief Justice of India, judges and bureaucrats, within a month of coming to power. They also promised to generate two crore jobs every year but even after ten months there is no job. They cheated the youth who made a beeline at polling stations to vote for the BJP,” said lalu in his famous but inimitable style while addressing his supporters at the conclusion of the march at Raj Bhavan. He thundered, “The politics of dhokha dhari (deceit) will not work.”
lalu said the land Acquisition Act of 2013 was a revolutionary move by the UPA Government led by Manmohan Singh. “The former PM was a man of integrity but the Modi Government and CBI are torturing the gentleman,” lalu added. The Modi Government, he alleged, is trying to grab the farmers’ lands for FDI and big industrial houses. The RJD chief lauded the fast and dharna by Nitish Kumar and rejected the suggestion that the CM should also have joined him in the protest march avoiding a question on the merger of the Janata Parivar parties. Earlier, lalu had denied the possibility of his party joining the Nitish Government.
The BJP took potshots at both Nitish and lalu for their ‘biased’ protest. Former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi advised the two leaders to observe fast, sit on dharna and take out march every week to protest the Centre’s policies so that nothing concrete is done for the people in Bihar in the next six months. leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav said, “Bihar is witnessing a political drama by Nitish and lalu for the sake of publicity. They should also protest against the deteriorating condition in Bihar right from law and order situation to development.”