If I am an outsider, who is Sonia, asks Modi

In a sharp counter-attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his “outsider” jibe at him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked him if he would call Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also a ‘bahri’, asserting that he was not a PM of another country.

Taking on his rivals at Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s home turf in Gopalganj, he wondered if Kumar wanted the return of old days of ‘jungle raj’, when the region had turned into a ‘mini Chambal’, in a riposte to the Chief Minister’s barb that he (PM) should return to the country its ‘old’ days if he cannot deliver the promised ‘achhe din’ (good days).

“Nitish babu says I am a bahri (outsider). I will ask (him) how I can be a bahri in Bihar, which is a strong organ of India and whose people had voted to make me the Prime Minister. Am I Pakistan’s Prime Minister? Am I Bangladesh’s or Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister?  I will ask him if he also calls Madam Sonia, who lives in Delhi a bahri? Is she a bahri or Bihari? Those who cannot give an account of their work play these games to mislead them,” Modi said.

On the last day of campaigning for the fourth phase of Bihar Assembly polls on November 1, Modi focused on blunting the grand alliance attack on the BJP-led NDA and raised the development pitch, saying that only “twin engines” of the state and Central government can pull the state out of the pit it had fallen into.

He also escalated his attack on the JD(U) leader and Chief Minister over his charge that he and his allies were “plotting” to give away a share of reservation enjoyed by SCs, STs and OBCs to a particular community, a reference to Muslims. Modi said Nitish had in a speech in Parliament on August 24, 2005 spoken about giving quota to a particular community.

With reports suggesting that the NDA was facing a tough challenge from the grand alliance, Modi claimed that the Nitish Kumar government would be comprehensively defeated in the same way Congress was in 1990 and Lalu Prasad in 2005.

Promising rule of law and employment if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, Modi said the election is an opportunity to punish those who “looted” the state in the last 60 years, including 25 years when ‘bada bhai-chhota bhai’ (Lalu-Nitish) ruled the state. “Will you (youth) get employment as long as bada bhai and chhota bhai remain in power? Is the bada bhai (Lalu) bothered about anybody else except his sons and family members? When he went to jail earlier (in fodder scam), he made his wife Chief Minister. Now, when he knows that he has to spend his remaining life in jail, he is asking his son to get ready to take the mantle. What kind of game is going on in this country. Should Bihar be handed over to such nepotists?” Modi said. 

Meanwhile, Kumar accused Modi of brazenly using “divisive language” and warned he may “lose” India in his “desperation” to win the “losing battle” of Bihar. “Astonished at Modiji’s brazen use of divisive language. In his desperation to win the losing battle of Bihar, I am afraid he might lose India,” Kumar tweeted. Though Kumar did not elaborate, his response came after Modi launched a stinging attack on him in his two rallies in which he said that the JD(U) leader in a speech in Parliament on August 24, 2005 had spoken about giving quota to a particular community, a reference to Muslims.