Nitish lashes out at Modi model of development before trust-vote win

“Corporate world-induced build-up is nothing more than rumour-mongering and does not make one a leader and one does not become an EBC leader just by being born into that caste,” Kumar said.

He also criticised what has come to be known as the Gujarat model of development. “Developing a developing state is not a great feat but developing a poor state like Bihar is” and the country should adopt a model that talks of “inclusive development and not divisive politics”,Kumar said.

The JD(U) won the trust vote without much difficulty,getting 126 votes in a house of 243 as it got the backing of four Congress,as many independents and one CPI MLA.

The RJD’s 22 MLAs and two independent MLAs opposed the trust vote while the LJP’s lone MLA abstained. The BJP,which has 91 MLAs,boycotted the House after the speech by its newly-elected leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav.

The Bihar CM praised the Congress and the CPI for joining hands with the JD-U for secular causes.

“The kind of slogans raised in the House today by BJP leaders further reinforced our decision to break the alliance,” Kumar said referring to the pro-Modi slogans in the Assembly. “We were together because we believed in the Atal Behari Vajpayee line of thinking. But when the party tilted towards the age of dictatorship,we have to take a firm decision.”

“Imposing one’s ideology is nothing less than dictatorship,” he said and went on to recite a couplet on how his party could never compromise on its core ideology of socialism and cohesiveness. “Aaya to sandesha baar baar amir ka,humse magar na ho saka sauda zamir ka (Although I got frequent messages from the rich,I could not have compromised with my conscience).”

“Now,the BJP has started playing the EBC card. Someone cannot be called an EBC or OBC leader just because one is born into that caste. Leaders like VP Singh and Choudhary Charan Singh were champions of backward people’s cause because of their deeds,” Kumar said in yet another obvious reference to Modi.

He also said that just because some BJP workers were “enthused”,it did not mean the BJP would sweep the next election. “It is nothing but an atmosphere built by the corporate world and such rumour-mongering can create an illusion for some time for people of some areas but it does not make one a leader,” Kumar said.

He also cautioned the BJP about “day-dreaming” about forming a government under “that person” and tersely added that “this dream will never be fulfilled”.

“And what model is one gung-ho about? The lowest wage rate in the so-called rich state of Gujarat is slightly over Rs 100 per person and we are giving Rs 162 for the same work,” he said.

Looking to take credit for the comfortable mandate he got in 2005 and the overwhelming five-sixth support in the 2010 Assembly polls,Kumar said: “The NDA had gone to these polls projecting me as a leader. Why did the BJP not call that person to campaign in these polls. It is only because they also knew that inclusive politics alone can work for Bihar.”

He said the BJP should have been happy when he praised Bihar’s achievements but “some people” could not digest Bihar’s progress and did not like Kumar praising it.

He recalled how the alliance was on the verge of collapse in June 2010 when the Gujarat government published advertisements in newspapers in Bihar flaunting the Rs 5 crore it gave as aid to victims of the Kosi floods in 2008.

“I was ready to resign but the situation was salvaged then. So long as there was no external influence on the Bihar BJP,the alliance worked very well but things took a sharp turn in recent months and we were left with no option but to part ways,” Kumar said.