Patna: Opposition leader in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav will undertake an intensive campaign against the “betrayal of people’s mandate” by chief minister Nitish Kumar from the historic town of Champaran — where Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, launched India’s freedom struggle. The campaign will be launched on August 9, coinciding with the “Quit India movement” against the British regime that changed the course of Indian history.
“I will launch the tour against the ‘insult of people’s mandate’ from Champaran on August 9. Bihar will not tolerate the betrayal of people mandate,” Tejashwi announced on Friday. Curiously, the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar is currently organising a variety of programmes to mark 100 years of Gandhi’s satyagraha (non-violent struggle against India’s then colonisers).
During the tour, Yadav, who was deputy chief minister in the previous Grand Alliance government, will sit before a statue of Gandhi and express regret for serving under Kumar as his deputy for 20 months. Yadav has accused the chief minister of joining hands with the sympathisers of those who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
“I will apologise to Mahatma Gandhi for not realising that Kumar is a RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] man. I had shared the dais with the chief minister when he launched the centenary celebrations of the Mahatma’s 1917 Champaran satyagrah earlier this year but I was wrong to trust him. Now, I am required to express my regret before the Mahatma,” Yadav told media.
During the course of the his statewide tour, Yadav said, he will expose the “double standard” of the chief minister and appeal to the masses to protest betrayal of people’s mandate. The pilgrimage will culminate with a massive rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on August 27.
Important opposition leaders such as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and others have been invited to the rally.
Bihar chief minister Kumar had also been invited to the rally, once nicknamed “BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao” (Throw out the BJP, or Bharatiya Janata Party, to save the country) rally but as of now he has joined the company of the BJP.
Yadav, who is younger son of Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, has declared an all-out war on the chief minister after he pulled out of the Grand Alliance last week and in a sudden turn of events formed a government with BJP support. That was despite the fact that the masses had given the mandate against the BJP and allowed it to sit in the opposition.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ended up winning only 58 seats in 243-members Bihar assembly against the Grand Alliance, which won 178 seats. Barely 20 months after sitting in the opposition, the BJP has suddenly grabbed power in Bihar thanks to Kumar.
The ruling Janata Dal United (JD-U) of Kumar, however, has taken a dig at former deputy CM for undertaking the pilgrimage. “The CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] has already registered a case against Tejashwi in a case of acquiring benami properties and investigations are going on. It is possible that soon he will be undertaking a regular yatra [pilgrimage] to court and jail”, JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told media on Friday.
