Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Untied) leader Nitish Kumar on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his attack on ally Lalu Prasad over beef remarks terming it as a “brazen attempt to add communal texture” to the Assembly polls and said the “real Modi” is on display.
Minutes after Mr. Modi ended his Munger election speech in which he accused Lalu of insulting ‘Yaduvanshis’ and the people of the state with his ‘Hindus also eat beef’ remarks, Mr. Kumar took to Twitter slamming the PM’s “deafening silence” on the Dadri lynching incident.
“The real Modi on display — brazen attempt to add communal texture to Bihar polls, but deafening silence on deplorable incident of Dadri,” Mr. Kumar said.
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A 50-year-old Muslim man was killed by a mob in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh recently after rumours that he and his family had eaten beef.
In another tweet, Mr. Kumar said it was for all to see “why Vajpayee ji was forced to remind him (Modi) to follow Raj Dharma, but wonder who will do the Vajpayee today ?”
Mr. Kumar was referring to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s words during his visit to a relief camp after the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat when Mr. Modi was the Chief Minister.
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Addressing a poll rally in Munger today, Mr. Modi latched on to RJD chief Lalu’s remarks on beef and said a “shaitan (devil) has entered a human body”.
“What all did he eat? It (the remarks) insulted the Yaduvanshis... Laluji these Yaduvanshis helped you to come to power. What all Yadavs eat...is it not an insult of Yadavs and Bihar?” he said.
The JD(U) leader came down heavily on Mr. Modi for his languge saying after terming Kumar’s DNA defective, he had called Lalu a shaitan’ (devil).
In a series of tweets, Mr. Kumar said this showed Mr. Modi’s mentality towards the people of Bihar as well as his dejection.
“First he said there is a flaw in our DNA. Then her dubbed Bihar as BIMARU and its populace unfortunate. Now he has attacked the grand alliance and Lalu ji as shaitan,” he said.