Reacting over ruling ally Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA and former Agriculture Minister of his cabinet Sudhakar Singh’s recent comment comparing him to`shikhandi” (transgender), Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said he “doesn’t take notice of such people and only his party can take cognisance of all this”.
But, Mr. Kumar’s senior party leader Upendra Kushwaha asserted that Mr. Singh’s comment was not “good for the health of mahagathbandhan”. Later, RJD leader and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav said, “Whoever makes such a statement is being considered an agent of the BJP.”
“I don’t take notice of such persons, and such comments need not be given any weightage. If somebody says something, it’s an internal party matter and only that party can take cognisance of such issues,” Mr. Kumar said while speaking to mediapersons in Patna. However, his party leader and chairman of the parliamentary board of JDU, Upendra Kushwaha reacted sharply and said, “His (Sudhakar Singh) personal comment is not good for the health of mahagathbandhan. His comment has hurt the sentiments of those who have faith in their leader Nitish Kumar.” Another ruling alliance partner Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi said he (Mr. Singh) “seems to be speaking the language of the BJP”. Senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari too condemned Mr. Singh’s comment and said it was “below dignity and his father Jagdanand Singh should take action against him”.
Sudhakar Singh is the son of State RJD President Jagdanand Singh and party MLA from Ramgarh constituency. Recently, he was forced to resign as the Agriculture Minister of Nitish Kumar-led cabinet after he flagged issues of corruption in his department. After his resignation, his father Jagdanand Singh had gone incommunicado citing “ill-health” but, later after meeting with party president Lalu Prasad, he assumed charge and started coming to the party office. However, sources close to Sudhakar Singh told The Hindu that he had been in touch with the BJP and might contest the upcoming parliamentary poll as the BJP candidate from a constituency in Shahabad area, from where he came.
Later, as the controversy aggravated in the ruling alliance government, RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav too reacted, “Whoever says anything against the government or Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is being considered as an agent of the BJP”. “In our party’s national council meeting in Delhi recently we had passed a resolution that nobody except RJD president Lalu Prasadji and me, will make any comment on the grand alliance government in Bihar. We’ll take such comments (of Mr. Singh) to our party chief Lalu Prasadji even though he is ill. But whoever makes such comment is being considered as an agent of the BJP”, Mr. Yadav said.
Drawing comparisons
Earlier, while speaking to mediapersons on January 2, Sudhakar Singh had drawn comparison of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with a transgender (shikhandi) and suggested that he should “immediately step down from the post of Chief Ministership to make way for Tejashwi Yadav. “People will not remember him (Nitish Kumar) once he steps down as he has done nothing great for the State…Nitish Kumar’s name will not be there in the history, he will not be remembered at all. He is like shikhandi who has no standing of his own”, Mr. Singh had said. However, later, Mr. Singh explained that his ‘shikhandi’ reference was “blown out of context”. “It was used in the political context to explain how the BJP had used Nitish Kumar to pin down RJD chief and our leader Lalu Prasad”.
Meanwhile, senior State BJP leader and party Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said that whatever Mr. Singh (Sudhakar Singh) had said was a “reflection of pain and frustration of Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav as Nitish Kumar is delaying coronation of Tejashwi as Chief Minister of the State which he had promised earlier. It is on direction of Mr. Prasad, the duo Jagdanand Singh and Sudhakar Singh, is batting hurricane against Nitish Kumar”.
“He is like shikhandi who has no standing of his own”Sudhakar SinghRashtriya Janata Dal MLA
