Patna:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked voters to punish parties which ruined Bihar in the past 60 years after Independence, describing them as the “Supreme Court” as well as the “Judges”. He was especially harsh on the Congress party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the ruling Janata Dal United (JD-U) which have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this poll being described as the “Mother of all elections”.
“This election is not only about forming a new government, but also about punishing those who ruined Bihar in the past six decades. You are the Supreme Court of India, you are the judges, and it’s simply in your hands to punish those who have ravaged Bihar … All you need is to press the button (of electronic voting machines) to punish these parties,” said Modi addressing two election rallies in Bihar on Friday.
The PM also presented the detailed “profile” of three parties being part of the Grand Secular Alliance to take on the NDA and charged them with doing nothing for the development of the state despite being in power for 60 years.
“They are the selfish people who have come together with greed for power, not over the issue of development of Bihar. They never approached my predecessor Manmohan Singh over the issue of development, nor did they reach even me during my one-and-a-half-year tenure,” alleged Modi and advised the masses to ask why RJD president Prasad was not contesting elections this time.
“Please ask Laluji why he is out of poll arena this time? What crime did he commit that the Indian court has disqualified him from contesting elections? Why has the court snatched his right to join the poll fray?” asked Modi, accusing the RJD president of trying to rule Bihar by proxy despite being forced out of elections. He also charged the RJD president with acting as a “Big Boss” who was trying to make people dance to his tune. Prasad, it may noted, stands disqualified for his conviction and subsequent sentencing in the multimillion dollar fodder scam.
The Prime Minister was equally unsparing towards Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar whom he accused of committing the greatest sin of stabbing Dalit chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in the back and throwing him out of power out of “greed for the throne”. “This is the man who came to power fighting against Jungle Raj, but now is busy convincing the masses there was nothing wrong with joining hands with the protagonist of Jungle Raj,” the PM said, ridiculing Kumar’s logic. He also likened the Kumar-led Grand Secular Alliance to “Grand Selfish Alliance”.
He called upon the masses to give a chance to the BJP-led NDA in Bihar to blot out all the wrongdoing committed by the previous regime. “You have given 60 years to the ‘Grand Selfish Alliance’. Now you give us only 60 months and I promise to change the destiny of Bihar,” the BJP exhorted. He also highlighted how India had now become the cynosure of all eyes across the world, but sadly Bihar is lagging behind in all growth indicators, such as per capita income, education, per capita power consumption, tele-density and employment generation.
He said many countries which got independence barely 30 years or 40 years ago have scripted a new story of development, but Bihar has not seen any progress even in the past 60 years, and asked the masses not to rely on those parties. He also charged his rival parties with coining “new abuses” every day to hurl at him.