Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hits back at PM Narendra Modi over his Kochi remarks

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday hit back at PM Narendra Modi on charges of protecting corrupt people and said Modi himself should ponder over the instances of defection, engineered allegedly by his party.
"He himself should think over the issue of protecting corrupts. Why don't they (BJP leaders) ponder when people are transferred from here to there, in some states," Nitish said, while responding to media queries over PM Modi's remarks on political parties in Kochi on Thursday.
Nitish was referring to the shifting of Shiv Sena legislators from Maharashtra to Guwahati by the BJP and the recent shifting of the JMM-Congress legislators from Ranchi to Raipur in fear of likely poaching by the saffron party.
Speaking at a meeting of BJP workers at Kochi airport campus on Thursday, PM Modi had said the biggest challenge is corruption and with the BJP fighting to root out corruption, a new political polarisation has begun in the country with certain political groups openly coming out and trying to get organised into a unit.
While the PM didn't take the name of any political party, he was apparently hinting towards the fresh regrouping of JD(U)-RJD-Congress in Bihar and the recent meeting of Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao with JD(U) de facto leader Nitish and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
"Who is protecting the corrupt people? Will anyone protect corrupt people? He (PM) himself should think over the issue. Here in Bihar, we have never tolerated corrupt people ever since we came in power. But what kind of remarks he made," said Nitish on PM's remarks in Kochi.
“He can say whatever he wants to. I have nothing to say,” said Nitish on PM’s remarks in Kochi. On being asked whether the PM sounded the poll bugle from Kerala, Nitish said, “Since he is the Prime Minister, he can go anywhere. but you don’t know who is in Kerala?” hinting towards the presence of the Left front government in the southern state.
The CM further invoked the name of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee as he took on PM Modi without naming him. “When respected Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power at the Centre, I had the opportunity to work with him. The way he took care of everybody... In Bihar too, I got the chance to work for so many years. Now, someone is at the Centre who keeps saying ‘something’.
I don't really pay attention to such talks," he said. On the other hand, Nitish looks to be going “soft” towards BJP parliamentarian Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo), who continues to attack CM Nitish Kumar for forming the grand alliance government. Experts give two reasons behind JD(U) ‘softness’ towards junior Modi. First, it was he who had dared to publicly declare Nitish as a “PM material” way back in 2012 and secondly, Nitish wants to keep all his options ‘open’.
“Nitish is a master politician who never keeps all his doors shut since politics is a game of possibilities,” commented political commentator DM Diwakar, the former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna.