A day after Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's bold disclosure that despite his predecessor Nitish Kumar's best efforts corruption in the state escalated manifold and he himself, for instance, had paid bribe for fixing his electricity bill sometime ago, leaders across party lines on Wednesday openly aired their strong opinion on the issue even as the BJP came down heavily on the government for its failure to check corruption.
The most hard-hitting remark came from RJD MP Pappu Yadav who in his constituency Madhepura declared that corruption in the state has reached such a proportion that all corrupt representatives of the people and government officers should be annihilated either by Maoists or terrorists or extremists."Sabhi corrupt jan-pratinidhiyon aur sarkari officers ko ya to Maowadi hatya kar de, ya phi aatankwadi ya ugrawadi…lekin woh marein jaroor..", said Pappu Yadav, whose wife Ranjeet Ranjan too is an MP from neighbouring Supaul constituency.
He further clarified that there was need for honest Maoists to check corruption in the country. "Imandar Maowadi jaise Charu Majumdar jaise logon ki jaroorat hai", he said.Soon after Pappu Yadav's controversial remark came, another senior RJD leader and former MP from Vaishali Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said some strong and solid steps should be taken to tackle corruption in the state which has gone beyond control.
Singh who lost the last parliamentary poll from Vaishali lok Sabha constituency against controversial lok Janshakti Party candidate Rama Singh also took a dig at the recent public meeting between lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar."Khali mel-milap se kuch nahi hoga…corruption rokne ke liye thos kadam uthana padega…corruption jyada badh gaya hain rajya mein", said Raghuvans Prasad Singh who earlier was said to be against any alliance between the RJD and the JD-U.
Interestingly, a state BJP leader said, "I just wonder these RJD leaders don't remember that their party chief lalu Prasad Yadav too has been convicted in corruption cases and even was sent to the jail".However, another RJD leader and MlA from Jagdishpur, Bhai Dinesh, who has been sitting on hunger-strike for the last three days, threatened self-immolation on Independence Day if the state government did not declare the state drought-hit.