Stung by a series of scam charges and Income Tax raids against his family members, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Friday declared that he would uproot the Narendra Modi government at the Centre “before it completes its five-year term.”
He also accused the BJP of conspiring to tarnish his image through I-T raids and making “frivolous allegations” against his sons and daughter.
“Listen, BJP/RSS people, Lalu will drag you off your seat in Delhi, whatever be my situation... Get this straight… don’t you dare threaten me,” tweeted Lalu Prasad.
‘Where’s the proof?’
On the recent Income Tax raids against his family members and others in connection with several “dubious” land deals, Mr. Prasad’s second tweet asked: “ Chapa…Chapa…Chapa...Chapa...kiska Chapa? Kisko Chapa? Chapa to hum marenge 2019 mein...Main dusron ka hausla digata hun, mera kaun digayega (Raid…Raid… Raid… whose raid? Who is being raided? … I’ll do a raid in 2019…I make others nervous, who will make me nervous?). Mr. Prasad asked the media to name the 22 places where Income Tax officials had conducted raids. “How did they [the media] report without any verification or evidence,” he asked.
Speaking to a select group of journalists in Patna, the RJD chief said the Modi government had completed three years.
“But it’s not going to complete its full five-year term... The BJP has been conspiring to tarnish Lalu’s reputation… How can my family and I become super rich and others remain paupers .. It’s all part of a political conspiracy.”
Mr. Prasad said he, his wife and two sons had been filing I-T returns and had also submitted affidavits on their assets to the Election Commission. “It’s all in the public domain.”
Mr. Prasad said Mr. Modi was trying to divide the country. “But we won’t let him divide the country … I’m standing rock solid in their path.”
Pan-India campaign
The RJD chief said he had called a “ BJP bhagao, Desh bachao” rally in Patna on August 27. “I have invited top leaders of all non-BJP parties to my grand rally…leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi, H.D. Deve Gowda, Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Karunanidhi will attend the rally from where we will launch a pan-India campaign to uproot them [BJP] from the Centre,” Mr. Prasad said.
He also raised the issues of beef ban and the volatile situation in Jammu and Kashmir. “Modi talks about beef ban, but in the last three years India has been the largest exporter of beef... In Kashmir, bodies of soldiers are being mutilated every day…Are these the real achievements of the Modi government?”
