Amit Shah sets Bihar poll agenda, opposition flays BJP

PATNA: Union home minister Amit Shah sounded the poll bugle in Bihar on Sunday, literally.
Though he termed his virtual rally as ‘Bihar Jan Samvad’ for BJP workers across the state to enumerate the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government 2.0 in the last one year, his message was loud and clear – BJP-led NDA did what the main opposition RJD-Congress could not do during their long stint at the helm in state as well as at the Centre.
Shah set the agenda for BJP workers and allies in the upcoming election. “The NDA changed the scenario in state from ‘loot & order’ to law & order and from ‘bahubal’ to ‘vikas bal’,” he said while referring to alleged corruption during the RJD-Congress regime. He said Bihar's growth rate was 3.9% when RJD was in power and it reached 11.3% under Nitish, with the state “moving from lalten raj to LED raj”.
Shah said the NDA would win the state assembly election under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy and BJP senior Sushil Kumar Modi, and made it clear again to the ally and LJP chief Chirag Paswan, who has issued statements on the leadership issue time and again.
The home minister also sent a clear message to the people by remembering Babu Jagjivan Ram, Jayaprakash Narayan, George Fernandes and Ram Manohar Lohia, who fought against “dynasty” rule in the country. It was a dig at RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi. The two will spearhead the opposition campaign in Bihar.
Fully aware that migrant workers will be a major election issue, Shah said it was their hard work which had laid the foundation of developed states in the country. “What have you (RJD) done for them,” the home minister asked the party led by Lalu Prasad, who is serving jail term in the fodder scam cases.
The opposition, however, flayed the rally at a time when the poor are struggling for survival in the face of job loss and no work available on their return home from other states due to Covid-19 pandemic. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said over 12 crore people have lost their jobs and 13 crore others came under the BPL category in the corona period. “The NDA government is power hungry and hardly bothered about the 1.4 crore poor who are on the verge of starvation,” Tejashwi said.
RJD spokesman and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha told TOI that the virtual rally was a desperate attempt of BJP to skirt real issues. “Shah did not explain the brazen and insensitive silence of his government for several weeks since the first lockdown with respect to the plight of migrant workers, particularly from Bihar. His satirical comment about ‘thali banging’ exposes his ignorance that it was an idea of the JP movement. The expenditure incurred on arranging the LED TVs could have been used for thousands of migrant families,” Jha said.
Shah had referred to the ‘thali’ clanging by RJD across the state on Sunday to lodge protest against the BJP’s rally.
The home minister’s speech was replete with political references when he said Indira Gandhi died with her ‘Garibi Hatoa’ slogan, but it is PM Modi who initiated solid measures to alleviate poverty through several schemes like Ujjwala Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Yojana and direct benefit transfer (DBT) of money into the Jan Dhan accounts and to small farmers.
However, AICC national media panellist and MLC Prem Chandra Mishra questioned the BJP’s priority by spending “no less than Rs 140 crore on buying 72,000 LED TVs for the rally”. Mishra told TOI, “It was an election rally and exposed the BJP, which should have spent such huge amount on the welfare of the poor struggling for survival in Bihar. It also indicates how much more BJP is going to spend on Bihar elections.”
JD(U) said the NDA recognised the potential of digital platforms for use in electioneering in the new age.
JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said Shah actually made it clear how the government helped the poor in coronavirus pandemic and used the digital platforms for that. “JD(U) is also holding meetings with party workers through digital platforms. Our alliance has recognised the use of virtual mode of electioneering much before others. This is the new-age technique to communicate with people during pandemic like Covid-19,” Prasad said.