24/06/2015

BJP caught in ‘Jungle Raj’, ‘anti-development Nitsh’ dilemma

 


Patna,(BiharTimes): Whenever the media raises questions about the languages used by them against each other in the past Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad get embarrassed. In the same way the BJP leaders are finding it difficult to sketch an anti-development image of the present Bihar chief minister.

Even the allegation that the Jungle Raj had returned in the state had failed to cut much ice as it is contradicting the party’s own position as in the first nine months of this period Bihar had Jitan Ram Manjhi as the chief minister. Today the BJP is supporting the same Manjhi whom the RJD had backed and whose arrest Sushil Kumar Modi had demanded.

Though it is easy to expose any government’s failure on the law and order front the JD(U) leaders are now quick to counter the BJP propaganda by citing the example of neighbouring Jharkhand where an abducted doctor was killed in Gumla and court attacked in Hazaribagh in broad day light leading to casualties. In this era of regional channels of Bihar-Jharkhand viewers and voters can draw their own conclusion.

True there is general realization that law and order situation has deteriorated in Bihar but it is also true that after the coming to power of Raghuvar Das-led BJP government in Jharkhand the crime graph has suddenly shot up.

However, the biggest challenge before the BJP is to demolish the development man image of Nitish Kumar, crafted by none else but their own leaders.

Today Sushil Kumar Modi may be calling the Nitish Kumar government as inefficient and corrupt but there is no denying the fact that he, as the deputy CM, saw prime ministerial material in Nitish Kumar, when other saffron party leaders were rooting for Narendra Modi.

As a finance minister for eight years it was he who used to give credit to the Nitish Kumar government for the record jump in the GDP rate though the truth is that the growth story started two years before the JD(U)-BJP government came to power in Bihar in November 2005. It had much to do with the massive funding by the Manmohan Singh government in the Centre.

Recently, the former road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, charged the Nitish government that in the last four years nothing worthwhile has been done in the field of road and bridge construction. Almost all the top BJP leaders are now not giving credit to Nitish Kumar for the better condition of roads in Bihar. But the people know that the roads have undergone a facelift in the state.

The BJP leaders instead give credit to Centre for the improvement in condition of roads. Too much extent they are right as National Highways and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana are central projects. But Nitish is quick to counter by stating that his government had spent its own money in the maintenance of NHs for which it is yet to get fund.

But what the BJP leaders do not say is that it was the Congress-led government at the Centre when all these works were undertaken. The same Congress is now backing the JD(U) and RJD.

It it true that Nitish Kumar got much more credit than he actually deserved. Apart from he himself, it is the media and BJP leaders who are responsible for the larger than life profile of the present CM.

The Janata Dal (United) ministers––almost all from the erstwhile Lalu-Rabri cabinet––were not articulate enough to propagate the ‘achievements’ of their own government.

Now with election round the coner the same BJP leaders are trying their level best to cancel out this picture of the CM.

The BJP has reason to make a U-turn on the issue of development. But the biggest problem is for the media. “The truth is that many in the media are either biased or have no idea whatsoever of the concept of development. One can not give credit to just one CM––be it Nitish Kumar or Narendra Modi (when in Gujarat) or say Chandrababu Naidu––for the development of their respective states. How can the role of the Centre be ignored,” asks political analyst Soroor Ahmed.

“Take the case of bridge between Patna and Sonepur. The foundation of rail bridge was laid down by prime minister Vajpayee on Feb 3, 2002. No doubt the railway minister was Nitish Kumar. When Lalu Prasad succeeded him in the Rail Bhawan he made it rail-cum-road bridge. Now the BJP leaders want to walk away with all the credit when the fact is that most of the construction work was done during the UPA regime. So the credit goes to everyone. And if there is delay all of them are partially to be blamed,” he said.


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