Begusarai: Seeking to turn the tables on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his attack on RJD chief Lalu Prasad over the beef issue, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday accused him of "doublespeak", saying beef exports had gone up in the last year during his rule.
The JD(U) leader also charged that BJP was trying to "bring issues of different places" to Bihar with a view to triggering controversies from which to gain political mileage. "Modiji's doublespeak at its best ? beef exports went up by 15.4 per cent in his 1st year as PM, yet he tries to make beef an issue in Bihar elections," Kumar said in a tweet message.
During his election rallies today, Kumar claimed that meat exports had grown substantially in Gujarat during Modi's tenure as the chief minister of that state.
In 2003, Gujarat exported 10,600 tonnes of meat, which rose to 34,990 tonnes in 2013, Kumar told an election rally at Samastipur.
He said that cow slaughter was banned in Bihar since 1955 and that was done during the chief ministership of Sri Krishna Singh, whom the prime minister had lauded at Begusarai yesterday.
Coming to the defence of RJD President Lalu Prasad, his secular alliance partner, Kumar flayed the prime minister for calling Prasad a "shaitan" (devil) even as he claimed that an RLSP MP, while addressing a joint press conference at the BJP office, had threatened to "break" the former Bihar chief minister's chest.
With the state elections set to kick off on October 12, Kumar also alleged that "like importing leaders and workers, BJP is trying to bring issues of different places to Bihar to trigger a controversy so that it could reap votes out of it". Kumar, the chief ministerial candidate of the grand secular alliance, also came down heavily on Modi over his electricity jibe at him.
"Had I not improved the electricity situation your slogan, 'Abki Bar Modi Sarkar', would not have been watched extensively, by youths in particular on TV during the parliamentary election and you would not have become PM," he said.
Modi during his rallies at Sasaram and Aurangabad today referred to what he claimed was Kumar's promise not to seek votes if he failed to bring electricity to voters' homes.
Kumar reminded the prime minister that it was in his address on the occasion of Independence Day in 2012 that he had said if he failed to improve electricity situation in Bihar he would not go to the people seeking votes for the 2015 assembly polls.
"Hasn't the electricity situation improved in the state? From the availability of 700 MW in 2005 it has risen to 3100 MW today," he told the gathering.
Taking a potshot at Modi over his accusation of misgovernment in Bihar for the past 10 years, Kumar said, "He (Modi) is ignorant of the fact that for a good seven-and-a- half years, his BJP was part of my government."
Kumar also alleged that veteran leaders of BJP like "Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have been put into cold storage by the new leadership."
