PATNA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mounted a sharp attack on the state’s ruling coalition led by chief minister Nitish Kumar at its two-day executive committee meeting, describing “political instability, unprincipled alliance and fear of jungle raj” as a big impediment to the state’s progress.
In the political resolution passed at the meeting in Darbhanga, the BJP blamed the Grand Alliance government’s “irresponsible approach” for the worsening condition of the labour force and small and marginal farmers.
“The farmers must get the right price for their produce. While fixing the minimum support price, it must be kept in mind that the farmers get some profit over the input cost. But the farmers in Bihar have been left to fend for themselves. They are not even getting the right compensation for their land… This is unfortunate given how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly striving to double the farmers’ income through a slew of initiatives,” the resolution said.
The resolution underlined that the irrigation department, which has remained with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) [JD-U] or the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) during the last three decades, hadn’t come up with a new canal project in all these years due to their myopic vision, and credited the Centre for the Asian Development Bank’s approval for the ₹3,272 crore Sone canal concretisation project in the Shahabad region.
“The Bihar government has not even completed the KYC of 26 lakh farmers, who may be deprived of the Kisan Samman Nidhi and there are serious irregularities coming to light even in the central and state schemes for the benefit of farmers,” the resolution said.
The BJP resolution also cited education as another area which was controlled by the JD-U and RJD for decades and had suffered. “The indifference towards education can be gauged by the fact that the state has not even published any books in the last two decades,” the resolution said.
The BJP also underlined that the proposed AIIMS at Darbhanga was yet to become a reality. “In 2018, the NDA government in Bihar sent a proposal for setting up AIIMS on the land of the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) and the Union cabinet approved ₹1264 crore for the same in 2020, but the work still could not take off. Nitish Kumar should rise above politics and speed up AIIMS construction for the benefit of the masses, who are compelled to go to other states for treatment,” it said.
The resolution also blamed the GA government for divisive politics by issuing controversial statements on Hindu’s sacred scriptures or attacking Indian culture as part of what the BJP called, was “its appeasement politics”.
“After Nitish Kumar became CM of the NDA government in 2005, he was known for good governance as people got a respite from the jungle raj of the RJD regime. Now, as he has once again switched sides, governance has become directionless and the same Nitish Kumar is being cursed. Indian Mujahideen’s terror modules are active in Mithilanchal and Seemanchal, as the GA government is not ready to take decisive steps,” the BJP said.
In his rebuttal to its former ally, chief minister Nitish Kumar said the Bihar government, right since 2005, has worked for all sections and it was due to the JD-U that even minorities voted for the BJP in the past. ”We had allied with the BJP of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was so different. Now we are out and happy,” he added.
Rajiv Ranjan, who left the BJP earlier this month and joined the JD-U, said the people won’t fall for the BJP’s rhetoric because they had seen the fruits of development. “A party that cannot even project a leader in the state cannot promise anything,” he said.