Jhanjharpur (Bihar): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar’s areas close to the borders (seemant) will become “infested with infiltrators” if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Shah, widely regarded as the BJP’s “principal strategist”, made the remark at a rally in Jhanjharpur parliamentary constituency, situated close to Nepal and Bangladesh.
The Home minister, who spoke for close to 30 minutes, charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad of pursuing “appeasement politics” through measures like cuts in holidays of government schools.
“I would like to congratulate the people of Bihar for putting up a resistance that forced the state government to withdraw its order whereby holidays on Raksha Bandhan, the festival of brothers and sisters, and Janmashtami, devoted to Lord Krishna, were done away with,” said Shah. The allusion was to the recent protests by teachers across the state which led the education department to withdraw the new calendar which was brought in with the aim of ensuring that classes were held for the requisite number of days in a year.
Continuing with the tirade against “tushtikaran” (appeasement), the Home minister slammed the Congress, a partner in the state’s ruling alliance, for dragging its feet on Ram Temple at Ayodhya and Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Showering praises on PM Modi for abrogation of Article 370 and making possible the construction of the temple “by January next year”, the home minister, however, struck an alarming note.
“If the Lalu-Nitish duo (jodi) returns to power in Bihar and Narendra Modi does not come back as Prime Minister, the entire region will become infested with infiltrators,” said Shah. He, however, exuded confidence that the BJP-led NDA, which performed well in Bihar in the last couple of Lok Sabha polls, will win “all 40 seats” of the state in 2024.
Shah also slammed the INDIA coalition for the alleged denigration of “Sanatana Dharma” and claimed that the Congress-led coalition did away with the previous name “UPA” because it had been associated with “scams involving Rs 12 lakh crore”.