Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday lost no time in hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of not honouring promises made for development of the state and remarking that problem was with the CM's "DNA".
Kumar held a press conference at his residence after seeing off the Prime Minister at Patna airport to give a point-by-point rebuttal to Modi's charges against him at the BJP rally at Muzaffarpur.
Today's visit was Modi's first visit to the state since assuming office 14 months ago.
Kumar contradicted Modi on his assertions of having benefited Bihar by devolving more money under 14th Finance Commission as against 13th Finance Commission as well on energy.
The Bihar CM, who had state Finance Minister Bijendra Yadav and two other senior ministerial colleagues Vijay Chaudhary and Shyam Rajak by his side, contested Modi's claim, saying, "Under 13th Finance Commission India's divisible pool was Rs 1455430 crore out of which Bihar's share in divisible pool was Rs 158385 crore which was 10.88 per cent of the total share.
"In the 14th Finance Commission India's divisible pool is Rs 3948187 crore out of which Bihar's share is Rs 383853 crore which is 9.72 per cent share," he said.
"While increase in divisible pool of the country meaning total money available for distribution among states from 13th Finance Commission to 14th Finance Commission is 2.71 per cent, but the percentage increase for Bihar is merely
2.42 times thereby incurring a loss of Rs 45802.56 crore," he said.
Kumar, a known detractor of Modi, took potshots at him for asserting that he has a "bigger" sum than Rs 50,000 crore he had promised during campaign for Lok Sabha elections as special package for Bihar but he was not announcing it now as Parliament session was on.
He played old video clippings of PM's speeches twice to counter PM's assertions in which he did not mention Rs 50,000 crore but had promised that his government would accord top priority to providing special status, special package and special attention to Bihar.
"Parliamentary session does not prohibit making such announcements as it is not a new announcement ... He (PM) did not announce it taking the excuse of Parliament session," Kumar claimed. Reacting angrily to Narendra Modi's comment that there was problem in his DNA, Kumar said it was an "affront of the entire state and its people."
"You have not properly studied the DNA of Biharis ... There is a famous saying 'ek Bihari sab pe bhari (one Bihari is more strong than everybody)," he said.
Kumar also took a jibe at the PM for saying he was seeking an opportunity from the people for the second time to serve them.
"People of the country have already given you a chance to serve them by making you PM. Are you now asking for additional charge of chief ministership of Bihar? If this is the case you should ask for the post of Gujarat CM," he said sarcastically.
