Patna,(BiharTimes): Had the serial blasts not taken place in Patna and Bodh Gaya the BJP’s counter-report card, “Viswasghat Ke Panch Mahina” (Five months of betrayal; Governance in peril), would have been much thinner than 48 pages.

Issued a day after 118-page annual report card released by chief minister Nitish Kumar the BJP tried its level best to highlight all the failures of the state government in the last five months or so and attributed them to the absence of the 11 hard-working ministers of the saffron party.

Talking to the media on the occasion the former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi claimed that his party’s ministers worked whole-heartedly for the state government. Notwithstanding humiliation and insult heaped upon them they never betrayed it. He took pain to name all the ministers of his party who worked so well to keep the government going for the larger interest of the development of the state.

Modi, who used to sit just beside Nitish at the time of release of report card in the last seven years, was seen flaying the same government which he had been stoutly defending for seven and a half years.  He claimed that Nitish is finding it difficult to run the government in the absence of BJP ministers, who proved more than loyal and stood behind him in thick and thin.

The BJP demanded a White Paper on the relief given to the farmers in drought-hit areas. It said out of Rs 769 crores sanctioned for diesel subsidy to the farmers, a sum of only Rs 147 crores was spent. The
government did not supply power for eight hours daily to the farmers. The government had promised to buy additional 500MW power for the drought hit areas, but that was not done.

The BJP’s paper charged Nitish of being insensitive to the victims of Ghamara Ghat railway tragedy in Khagaria district on August 19 last in which 37 pilgrims returning from Katyani Devi Temple were run over by an Express train. He did not go there, instead preferred to fly to Mumbai.

Similarly, Nitish did not go to Masrakh in Saran district to console the family members of the 23 children who had died in mid-day meal tragedy on July 16 last.

Incidentally, the BJP’s paper once again did not mention anything about the November 19, 2012 Chhath day tragedy in which officially about two dozens devotees lost their lives in Patna itself. The state government was largely blamed for this tragedy but the chief minister had then rejected all such allegations.

The silence was obvious because it did not happen in the last five months. But then the BJP went on to take the credit for not a single polio case in Bihar since 2010 on the plea that the health ministry was headed by Chandra Mohan Rai, Nand Kishore Yadav and Ashwini Choubey of the party.

Its report card pointed out to the spurt in caste and communal violence in the state. Riots took place at Nawada for the first time since 2005 when Nitish assumed power. Bettiah in West Champaran, Baddi in Rohtas, Rajauli in Nawada, Khagaria and Forbesganj in Araria also witnessed similar incidents.

Caste violence took place at Shivsagar in Rohtas and Mahadalits were not allowed to participate in the Independence Day celebrations this year.

However, on this occasion SuMo, who was till June 16 the greatest supporter of Nitish Kumar, gave an interesting statement, which somewhat gives a true picture:“Even while we were a part of the government, we felt that the NDA-II was not performing as well as the NDA-I. There was an element of complacency in the NDA-II. Even the JD(U) ministers felt so. We raised this issue before the chief minister. So did JD(U) minister Narendra Singh. The chief minister did not take it in the right spirit and told us to look after our departments.”

Modi did not stop there but went on to add that his personal secretary had to run to the officials concerned for the salary of the deputy chief minister. This was something amazing and perhaps did not happen during the ‘Jungle Raj’ years too.

But finally the report card came down heavily on Nitish for being soft towards terrorists and extremists. The Hunkar Rally blasts and Mahabodhi Temple explosions as well as Maoists’ activities find prominent place in it.