PM drops beef barb for ‘vikas’ debate

AURANGABAD/SASARAM:Setting aside the beef controversy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday went back to the ‘jungle-raj-versus-vikas-raj’ debate to corner the JD(U)-RJD-Congress Mahagathbandhan.
“Lalu ji wants to remote-control Bihar since he cannot contest the election himself,” Modi said as he launched fresh attacks on the Lalu-Nitish duo for lawlessness at a mammoth election rally in Sasaram.Speaking at another meeting in Aurangabad, he later remarked, “Lalu and Nitish are bade bhai-chhote bhai.”
As the crowd chanted “Modi, Modi, Modi”, the PM said, “In Patna, an IPS officer was attacked by criminals last night. If a police officer is not safe in the state capital, how can the common man feel safe?” He added, “This time you have to choose between jungle raj and development to put Bihar on the world map.”
(IPS probationer Rakesh Kumar and his bodyguard were injured when criminals shot at them near museum at Budh Marg in the heart of the state capital).
Modi was unsparing when he flayed Mahagathbandhan leaders for their attacks on him. “The Mahaswarthi gathbandhan has nothing much to do. Its leaders use new expletives and abuses for me. It has opened a factory of abuses that they sell everyday.” The crowd lustily cheered him all through his speech.
The PM recalled how Nitish and Lalu fought each other in the past. He said, “It is Nitish who had first described Lalu Prasad’s rule as jungle raj. Now, he does not want anybody to say so.” He added, “Only one industry flourished during jungle raj and it was that of kidnappings and robberies.” To drive his point home, he said, “Between January and July this year, there were about 4,000 kidnappings in Bihar.”
In Aurangabad, Modi paid special attention to the problems of unemployment. He said, “The youth of this state did not get anything even though there were two railway ministers from Bihar (Nitish and Lalu).” He, however, did not mention the third one, his ally, Ram Vilas Paswan.
“Recently, I travelled by the Faridabad metro. Most of my fellow passengers were jobless youths from Bihar looking for employment in Delhi. They said they would return home to vote and remove the present government for the sake of development,” Modi said.
Modi promised uninterrupted power to all states by 2022 when India celebrates the 75th anniversary of its independence. “You will be shocked to know that of the 18,000 villages without electricity, 4,000 are in Bihar,” he said.
He said he would give the details or “pie-pie our pal-pal ka hisaab” of his performance when he comes to seek votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. He added, “Voters hi Hindustan ke supreme court, nyayadheesh aur Bihar ke nyayadheesh hain”. Referring to the performance of other governments, he said “Saath saal ki barbaadi saat maheene main mita doonga.”