Nitish Kumar takes on PM Modi’s ‘hit-and-run tactic’, armed with facts and figures

At a press conference in Patna, called to refute claims made by the PM in his rallies, Nitish reiterated the Bihari versus bahari (outsider) idea put forth Friday, when he distinguished between himself and Modi. “This fight is a matter of Bihar’s swabhimaan,” he said.

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He criticised Modi’s silence on the lynching of a man in Dadri, and slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on the reservation policy. “There is nothing more funny than the BJP trying to raise the beef issue here; it has never mattered in Bihar,” said Kumar.

The CM took his time taking apart Modi’s Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for the state, announced on August 18. Quoting from a letter from Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Kumar said most of the money in the package would remain with the Centre. “What does the Bihar government get? He says whatever he wants and leaves. He gets bumper publicity… A person like the PM has been telling untruths,” he said.

“He talks of the low number of toilets in Bihar. He is right… But before he became PM, he was the CM of Gujarat for 12 years. You say why 39 per cent of Gujarat’s households don’t have toilets. Yet you go and insult other states,” Kumar said, calling the PM’s tactic “hit and run”.

Kumar went on to quote NCRB data to claim Bihar was safer than Delhi, where the police answers to the Union Home Ministry.

The CM also claimed consumption of electricity had gone up during his rule.