SuMo gives Dalit twist to Nitish’s failure in seeking Tejashwi’s resignation
Patna,(BiharTimes): Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday gave a Dalit twist to the politics of seeking resignation.
He said that chief minister Nitish Kumar sought resignation from the then minister Jitan Ram Manjhi within four hours of his swearing in as he was a Dalit. Manjhi’s name figured in education department scam when he was a minister in the Lalu-Rabri cabinet.
However, when Nitish became the chief minister of Bihar on November 24, 2005 he made Manjhi (who was now in JDU) a minister, but asked him to resign the same evening after he learnt from a mediaperson that the latter’s name figured in a scam.
But Nitish inducted Manjhi again into the cabinet a few months later after Manjhi’s name was cleared.
Sushil Modi, however, accused Nitish of maintaining double standards. He said that the chief minister is not seeking deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav even after an FIR was lodged against him.
SuMo once again questioned the silence of Nitish Kumar over the issue.
But Manjhi was not the lone minister to be removed after the name figured in any case.
According to the former deputy CM, Ramanand Singh, Ramadhar Singh and Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha were removed by Nitish because their names figured in cases.
SuMo also reminded Nitish of his past statement where he maintained that a distinction should be made between people facing corruption cases and those facing other cases which were of political nature.
However, according to analysts, what SuMo forgot is that Nitish had joined hands with Lalu Prasad in 2014 just a year after his conviction in a fodder scam case.
