Nitish Kumar asks BJP to mind its language

PATNA: Warning the BJP to mind its language, the JD (U) leaders, including chief minister Nitish Kumar, on Tuesday said the kind of language being used by saffron leaders is not only offensive but also heavily laced with falsehood. "The BJP should stop spreading lies and have the courage to listen to truth. There is not even an iota of truth in the statements they are issuing (against me)," Nitish said on Tuesday.

The CM was reacting to the utterances of national and state BJP leaders on his stinging remarks on the Hoonkar Rally on October 27 addressed by BJP's PM face Narendra Modi. On Monday, he had called the rally a flop and said the BJP should be thankful to terrorists who engineered explosions at Gandhi Maidan, for diverting the attention from the size of the rally to the blasts.

Nitish said if they (BJP leaders) hurl allegations on us, they should be prepared to face rebuttal. He advised his former ally to speak truth, based on substance. "Their allegations are hollow and they believe in propagating lies, which they are doing everyday," he said.

Defending the CM's stance, state JD (U) president Bashistha Narain Singh attacked the BJP for its charge of security lapse which led to serial blasts on October 27. Singh asked, "When terrorists attacked Parliament during the NDA rule when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM and L K Advani the deputy PM and home minister, was it a security lapse or terror attack? When terrorists mounted attacks at several places including Gujarat, were they security lapse or terror attacks?"

Singh said whenever terrorists struck (in the past), various governments and all political parties rose above petty politics to condemn the attacks and supported administrative measures but, for the first time, a terror attacks in Bihar is being seen as a security failure by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the CM's Monday barbs against Narendra Modi, that he was speaking lies, have left the state BJP leaders fuming. His former deputy Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said, "Nitish is a big liar. He is speaking only lies on security lapses and police inaction against terrorism." He said with the huge success of Narendra Modi's rally in Patna, the CM was scared. Other BJP leaders repeated what the national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said in Delhi on Monday, suspecting the mental state of Bihar CM. JD (U) leaders, on the other hand, refused to take notice of Lekhi's remarks.

Faizan Ahmad TOI, Patna

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