Desperate RJD Out to Stir Communal Trouble: Modi
Patna: Aug. 31, 2007
Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, at a press conference in Patna on Friday, accused the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of attempting to incite communal disharmony in the state by trying to disseminate lies and false information about the Bhagalpur police brutality incident.
"RJD leaders are running helter-skelter seeing their public support slipping away and are spreading rumors and lies in their desperation to win back their traditional vote bank," Modi said while thanking the people of Bhagalpur for thwarting their attempt to stir up communal tension in the district.
The Deputy CM further said that the mob that participated in beating the petty thief who was caught after snatching a chain from a woman in Bhagalpur also included several Muslim men.
"This had nothing to do with communal feelings. The man was a thief who got caught and beaten up by the mob. The cops who also took part in the beating were immediately fired so how can one blame the government for not doing enough in the case," he asked.
"RJD has been exposed in the eyes of the public for continually trying to incite communal trouble in Bihar. However, people of Bihar are far much smarter than the RJD gives credit to them," Modi said.
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader further said that now that the Bhagalpur victim riots were being compensated for atrocities committed under the Lalu raj, the RJD leaders were going berserk seeing the prospect of losing the support of the minority community.
Continuing their attack on the RJD, Janata Dal (U) legislator Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha advised the RJD leaders to do some introspection before uttering nonsense in their frantic efforts to incite a communal riot in Bihar.
"While the Nitish government acted swiftly by bringing the culprits in the police brutality case to justice, in Lalu-Rabri regime such cases were conveniently ignored and forgotten for political reasons," he said.
"In 2003, RJD legislator Lalit Yadav, not only took the Bhojpur resident Deenanath Baitha hostage after a minor fender-bender, he pulled out his nail with a pair of pliers and forced him to eat and drink human feces and urine for days.
"In 2001, four gypsies were lynched in Bhojpur district. Then a mob in Nawada district gouged the eyes of two dalit youths. Where was the RJD outrage then?" Kushwaha demanded to know adding many such cases of brutality were reported during the 15 year of RJD rule but the leaders conveniently swept them under the rug to avoid any public backlash.
Meanwhile, National Minority Forum general secretary Dr. Khurshid Anwar, while commending Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for finally bringing justice to the Bhagalpur riot victims, accused the opposition of conspiring to bring down the NDA government in Bihar.
"The latest Bhagalpur incident was an attempt to divert the attention of the public from the excellent work done by the Nitish government in the flood relief operation and those who have been accusing Nitish of being communal are crushing the dreams and ideals of leaders like Karpoori Thakur, Lohia, and Dr. Ambedkar," Dr, Anwar said.
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