Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Saturday defended Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former CM Rabri Devi and other family members against whom the CBI has filed a charge sheet in a Delhi court in “land-for-job scam” in the railways.
Kumar called it a conspiracy of BJP and deliberate action after the change of government in Bihar in August this year.
“I’ve seen everything. There is nothing in the case. It happened only because we’ve (JD-U and RJD) come together again. What happened five years ago…they found nothing when we were with them (BJP). Is this the way? (yeh koi tarika hai)?” Kumar told reporters.
CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) had said on Friday that it had filed a charge sheet against Prasad, Rabri Devi, their daughter Misa Bharti and 13 others in connection with the alleged scam in which the agency had filed an FIR (first information report) on May 18.
Prasad and his family members are accused of getting more than one lakh square feet of land transferred in their names by those who sought jobs in railways.
However, former Bihar deputy CM and Rajya Sabha member, Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP, reminded JD(U) that it was their party leaders who had raked up the case. “Incumbent JD(U) national president Lalan Singh and party leader Shivanand Tiwari had exposed the scam. When the CBI registered the FIR, JD (U) provided the papers and pressured CBI to act. Now when action is being taken, JD(U) is showing support to Lalu Prasad,” Modi said on Saturday.
Urban polls
On the Patna High Court’s orders to put urban polls on hold, Kumar accused former ally BJP of trying to put him in the dock.
“They are giving a false picture,” he said and pointed out that the state’s system of quotas for OBCs and EBCs in polls had been in place for over a decade and had been previously upheld by the High Court as well as the Supreme Court.
“They (BJP) are also trying to escape their responsibility. For the entire period that I had an alliance with them, the urban development portfolio remained with them. I wonder whether they have become hostile towards the OBCs”, said Kumar. “They (BJP) do not want reservation for backward people,” he alleged.
“We will appeal against the order which relied on Supreme Court directions for reservations in some other states. We will underscore that in Bihar, elections have been held in the past under the quota system we had. Categorisation of OBCs and EBCs, wherein Muslims too are covered, was done way back in the 1970s when our mentor Karpoori Thakur was the CM,” he said.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the BJP met Governor and sought his intervention in deferment of urban polls.
On Prashant Kishor
CM Kumar also opened up on election strategist Prashant Kishor and said he was speaking BJP’s language and denied ever offering any post to him.
“Let him speak whatever he wants, We’ve nothing to do with it. Four-five years back, he had told me to merge my party with Congress. He has gone to BJP and is acting as per their advice,” said Kumar.
The CM alleged he was running BJP’s agenda.
Kishor had recently said that after losing the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Kumar met him in Delhi and sought his help. “I assisted him winning 2015 Assembly polls in the Bihar as the chief ministerial candidate of mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). And today, he has the audacity to offer gyan [wisdom] to me”, Kishor had said.
