PATNA:
Bihar Congress election campaign committee (ECC) chairman and former Union minister
Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Monday said the Congress workers would not allow PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to address rallies in the state if attacks on Biharis continued in
Gujarat.
“We have been repeatedly appealing for peace and order in Gujarat,” Singh said at a press conference here. He alleged that PM Modi and Shah have been silent on the attacks on the Biharis in Gujarat and their consequent exodus from there to Bihar. “The Gujarat government has not taken any action against Gujaratis involved in the attacks under a well thought out conspiracy,” Singh said, adding the “BJP duo” must know that the people of Bihar — also of Uttar Pradesh — were not just for casting votes in their favour.
Singh, who was accompanied by state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha, told media persons that even Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has only said he has been “keeping his eyes” on the developments in Gujarat, but that would not mean much if the situation in Gujarat did not improve.
Referring to the allegations from Bihar BJP functionaries that those associated with the Congress MLA from Gujarat, Alpesh Thakor, were involved in the attacks on Biharis, Singh and Jha clarified that Thakor has already sought inquiry into the incidents and also most stringent action against the culprits, but no follow-up action had been taken so far.
Singh and Jha said the Gujarat government had allowed the continuance of violence against the Biharis to malign Thakor, because he was an extremely backward caste (EBC) leader and had made PM Modi and Shah to struggle hard in the last Gujarat assembly elections. “Moreover, Thakor is in-charge of the Bihar Congress affairs. The BJP fears his influence. Therefore, they are trying to malign him,” Jha said.