Speaking at a rally in Jhanjharpur parliamentary constituency, situated close to Nepal and Bangladesh, Shah accused Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad of pursuing “appeasement politics” through measures like cuts in holidays of government schools.
“I would like to congratulate the people of Bihar for putting up a resistance that forced the state government to withdraw its order whereby holidays on Rakshabandhan, the festival of brothers and sisters, and Janmashtami, devoted to Lord Krishna, were done away with,” said Shah.
The allusion was to the recent protests by teachers across the state which led the education department to withdraw the new calendar which was brought in with the aim of ensuring that classes were held for the requisite number of days in a year.
He speaks nonsense: Bihar CM on Shah
On Shah’s public address in the state, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said: “Don’t pay attention to it. I don’t pay attention to anything of theirs. When he comes, he speaks nonsense. Does he have any knowledge of Bihar’s development and how much work is happening here?”
Shah slams Congress
Continuing with the tirade against “tushtikaran” (appeasement), the home minister slammed the Congress, a partner in the state’s ruling alliance, for dragging its feet on Ram temple at Ayodhya and Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Showering praises on PM Modi for abrogation of Article 370 and making possible the construction of the temple “by January next year”, the home minister, however, struck an alarming note.
“If the Lalu-Nitish duo (jodi) returns to power in Bihar and Narendra Modi does not come back as Prime Minister, the entire region will become infested with infiltrators (saara seemant kshetra ghuspaithiyon se bhar jaaega)”, said Shah.
“In such a situation, many types of issues will arise in Bihar (anek prakaar ke sawaal khade honge). Do you want the area to be teeming with infiltrators,” the home minister asked.
He, however, exuded confidence that the BJP-led NDA, which performed well in Bihar in the last couple of Lok Sabha polls, will win “all 40 seats” of the state in 2024.
The NDA had secured 39 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections in Bihar and will now look to “break all records” in next year’s polls by winning all the seats, said Shah.
Shah also slammed the INDIA coalition for the alleged denigration of “Sanatana Dharma” and claimed that the Congress-led coalition did away with the previous name “UPA” because it had been associated with “scams involving Rs 12 lakh crore”.
“Some of the scams involved Lalu Prasad, who was then the railway minister, to which Nitish Kumar is now turning a blind eye for the sake of his prime ministerial ambitions”, alleged Shah.
Shah, who reached the venue by a chopper he took at Darbhanga, credited the Modi government for the airport at the north Bihar town and said an allocation of Rs 1,200 crore has been made to upgrade the one at Patna.
He also blamed the state government for the stalling of construction of AIIMS at Darbhanga “which would have made Bihar a state with more than one such hospital (after Patna)”.
“The Nitish Kumar government had allotted a tract of land that was unsuitable for the project. Moreover, they have now taken the entire 81 acres back”, alleged Shah.
(With input from agencies)
Watch Amit Shah: Lalu wants to make his son the chief minister and Nitish Kumar wants to become PM