A day after local BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha expressed his displeasure at not being invited to the centenary celebrations of his alma mater, Patna University, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be the chief guest on Saturday, the Vice-Chancellor of the university on Friday said the invitation had been sent to Mr. Sinha and also former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and RJD chief Lalu Prasad on their email because the “printing of invitation cards was delayed”.
“I hope all will attend the centenary celebrations of their university,” Rash Bihari Prasad Singh, the Vice-Chancellor, said.
Almost all the top politicians, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy in the Cabinet Sushil Kumar Modi, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, senior bureaucrats and eminent academicians of Bihar have studied at the Patna University.
On Thursday, in a series of tweets, Mr. Sinha had expressed his displeasure at not being invited to the centenary celebrations of his “own alma mater in a constituency from where he is also the local MP.”
In an interview to a news channel on Friday, the actor-turned-politician said that for the people of Bihar, GST stood for “ Gail Sarkar Tohar (your government is gone)”. The BJP leader also said that the “poor and the businessmen” were reeling under the demonetisation announced on November 8 last year. “The impact of demonetisation is huge...there is panic among the poor and businessmen…you cannot gauge the mood of the country by talking to corporate houses as there is need to take care of the middle class, younger generation, unemployed, vendors, farmers…everything has to be taken into account,” he said.
Earlier, former Finance Minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha too had raised serious concern over “consistent slowdown of economy in the country”.
Five-hour visit
Meanwhile, all preparations have been made for the Prime Minister’s five-hour visit to the State, which will be his first full-fledged official tour to the State since the BJP became a part of the ruling coalition in July this year.
In August, Mr. Modi along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit districts of north Bihar.
The Prime Minister would also inaugurate development projects at Mokama, about 100 km from Patna, as part of the ₹1.25-lakh crore package he had announced at a public meeting at Ara in the run up to the state Assembly elections in 2015.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has hailed the Centre’s “very positive” approach towards development in Bihar and said it was providing assistance to the state by way of projects, particularly in the field of roads, energy and infrastructure.
