‘Bidi’ row: Congress accuses NDA of twisting context

Patna: Amid the uproar over a social media post that appeared to equate “bidi” with Bihar, the Bihar Congress defended its Kerala unit on Friday, insisting the remark was quoted out of context.

State Congress president Rajesh Kumar said the post never compared Bihar to a bidi, but was twisted by BJP and JD(U) leaders to malign the party. “What we meant to say was that the Centre took the decision to reduce tax on bidi in view of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections while smoking is injurious to health and could create severe health complications,” he said.


Kumar added that the mention of “B for Bihar” in the post was only to highlight that the tax cut was announced with Bihar polls in mind. “We want to state here that Bihar finance minister Samrat Choudhary decided to reduce the tax on bidis, which was acknowledged by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference, stating that ‘Samrat Choudhary played a role in rate rationalisation,’” Kumar said.

He went on to stress the harmful effects of smoking. “Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, asthma, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart and blood pressure issues, among other diseases,” he said.

Kumar alleged that the Centre’s move to make bidis cheaper amounted to encouraging smoking. “Despite all this, the Centre's bid to make bidis cheaper is like encouraging the people for smoking and thus playing with the lives of the people,” he said. He also attacked finance minister Choudhary for not pushing to bring petrol and diesel under GST, saying this left people in Bihar and across the country to suffer the impact of inflation.

Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav suggested Congress should apologise if its post hurt Bihar’s image. “I am not aware of the social media post, but if any adverse comment was made about Bihar, then they should definitely tender an apology,” he told reporters in Patna before leaving for Sasaram to attend a function marking the martyrdom day of veteran socialist leader Jagdeo Prasad, known as the “Lenin of Bihar.”