Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday seemed to agree with the Congress that the National Herald case involved political vendetta on the part of the BJP government.
“There should not be any vendetta in politics. In a democratic system, the mandate is given to work for the public. Public mandate is not to harass the Opposition,” he told reporters here.
The comments came on a day when Mr. Kumar met President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and hoped the Centre would keep its promise of a package for Bihar.
Asked whether he agreed that the Centre was misusing the Enforcement Directorate for political vendetta, Mr. Kumar said: “When the Congress is saying something it must be well thought out. I have no details. But when the Congress is saying so, it must have some meaning; otherwise why will the party say so?”
The Trinamool Congress has also seen some merit in the Congress’s charge, while refraining from going into the merits of the case. “We are not sitting in judgment on the merits of this case, which is sub judice ; but from certain actions, it is clear that the government is on its feet to harass Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the Congress,” Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the Trinamool Congress told The Hindu .
D. Raja of the CPI took a nuanced position. While saying that Parliament should function as it has to discuss pressing issues, he told The Hindu that the Congress should offer details of the vendetta if it felt it was being targeted.
