A youth in his twenties hurled his slipper at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday at the janata darbar. The slipper hit CM’s right chest even as he was engrossed in reading the petition of the youth. The security personnel present around the CM immediately nabbed the assailant, who was identified as Nitish Kumar, and tried to take him away but at the instruction of the CM who asked him to sit on a chair close to him.
The CM himself admitted that the slipper hit him suddenly and he could not realise immediately what had happened. He also showed marks of the chappal on his white kurta. “I have asked the DGP not to file any case as I have forgiven him. I told the top cop that I have no objection on his act,” the CM told newsmen after the conclusion of his janata darbar where people came with their complaints related to police and land issues.
The person who revealed his name as Nitish Kumar belongs to Chakia village in Arwal district. He was furious that the Government has banned lighting of burners for cooking and performance of havan and yagna between 9 in the morning and 4 in the evening.
The youth was heard telling the CM that he was anti Hindu despite being a Hindu for putting restrictions on havan and yagna. “I asked him to sit in order to save him from the police and also that I could talk to him later on. But he complained of vomiting so I asked the staff to take him to the doctor present in the premises,” the CM said.
Earlier Jitan Ram Manjhi, when he was the CM, was hit by a slipper at the janata darbar at the same venue and the youth had been sent to jail.
The police following the Monday incident however filed an FIR against the assailant Nitish and was interrogating him. Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said a case has been field against him for creating hindrance in the official functioning and creating nuisance. Before the CM’s public admission that the slipper hit him, the police officials were claiming the youth tried to hurl some papers on him.
The CM said the Government’s advisory has been issued in the wake of the series of the incidents of fire in rural areas in a number of districts where hundreds of huts were torched and some lives lost. He said he reviewed the incidents and was told that most of the incidents took place between 12 and 4 pm due to spark from the earthen burners (chulha) or caused by fire from havan and yagna. The directive has asked people to prepare the food before 9 in the morning and where havan is held all precautionary measures should be taken. He said, “This is the responsibility of the Government and my administration is pro active. Even if someone threw chappal at me for this, I am not going to refrain me from performing my duties. I have got mandate to serve the people. Running the Government is not the bed of roses but a crown of thorns.”