‘Will straighten rioters after putting them...’: Amit Shah in Bihar - Hindustan Times
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‘Will straighten rioters after putting them...’: Amit Shah in Bihar

Apr 02, 2023 05:28 PM IST

Amit Shah said that he had called up Bihar governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar Sunday morning to take stock of the communal violence in Nalanda and Rohtas districts

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that those involved in rioting and violence in Bihar will be “straightened” after “putting them upside down” if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forms government in the state.

Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting in Bihar’s Nawada on Sunday. (PTI)
Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting in Bihar’s Nawada on Sunday. (PTI)

He was addressing a public meeting as part of his ‘Lok Sabha Pravas’ programme at the Hisua inter school ground in Nawada district amid tight security and war of words between the BJP and the Grand Alliance (GA) leaders in the wake of communal clashes in Sasaram and Bihar Sharif in Nalanda and Rohtas districts respectively. Shah had to cancel his scheduled programmes in Sasaram and Patna due to serious flare ups.

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“We will straighten those involved in rioting and violence after putting them upside down (ulta latka ke seedha kar denge). Biharsharief and Sasaram are burning and innocent people are getting killed. I had to go to Sasaram to participate in Samrat Ashok birth anniversary function, but I could not go. But I will certainly go to Sasaram the next time. I pray to God that peace is restored in Bihar at the earliest,” he said.

Violent communal clashes erupted in Nalanda and Rohtas during Ram Navami processions injuring several people and incidents were reported even on Saturday night when a 16-year-old boy was killed in Nalanda.

Shah said that he had called up Bihar governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar Sunday morning to take stock of the situation in the state. “But Lalan Babu (JD-U president Lalan Singh) felt bad. I am the home minister of the country and Bihar is part of it. As the government here cannot control things, I have concerns. After all, how can a government running with the support of ’pioneers of jungle Raj’ ensure peace in the society. The lust for chair may have forced (chief minister) Nitish Kumar, who is adept at cheating everyone and hopping parties, to sit in the lap of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, but the BJP does not have any such compulsion. We will awaken the people, who want to see Narendra Modi as the PM for the third time, to uproot the GA,” he added.

Shah appealed to the people to give the BJP all the 40 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections and install a BJP government in 2025 to end the cycle of violence once and for all and take the state on the path of peace and prosperity.

He also reiterated that the doors of the BJP were permanently closed for chief minister Nitish Kumar even after election results.

The minister asked people if the Narendra Modi government had done the right thing by abolishing Article 370 to end the politics of appeasement once and for all and constructing Ram Temple at Ayodhya despite opposition from the lines of Congress, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and others.

Referring to Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Shah said that the there was no match to the present Bihar government, as one person (Kumar) was eyeing the PM post while the other (Tejashwi) was eying the CM post and those suffering due to their ambitions were the people. “The reality is that there is no vacancy of PM post and that will keep Lalu Prasad’s son in waiting. Nitish Kumar will never leave the chair and Lalu Prasad should know this. Bihar’s people have no misunderstanding about them. The people will ensure that lotus blooms in Nawada and on all the 40 seats. Even the MPs and MLAs of the GA oppose Nitish Kumar, as they cannot face the people,” he added.

The home minister said that the BJP helped both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar form the government, but now it was time for the party to form the government on its own. “Nitish Kumar, who thrives on poisoning of casteism, and Lalu Prasad, the pioneer of ‘jungle Raj’ cannot have any truck with the BJP. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav earlier called Nitish Kumar snake, ‘paltu chacha’, ‘dhokhebaz’, ‘arrogan’t and even ‘chameleon’, but all that was conveniently forgotten for chair,” he said, adding the BJP would also end rampant corruption and black marketing of seeds and fertilisers being reported from the state.

Highlighting the string of development initiatives of the Centre for the Nawada region, including rail lines, trains, highways and irrigation schemes, Shah said that all the panchayats of Bihar would have a cooperative dairy under the new scheme of the Centre. “Bihar has got more than double funding under the Narendra Modi government compared to the UPA government. Besides, 4.25 lakh metric tonne of ration has been given free of cost to Bihar under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, 85-lakh farmers get 6,000 every year, 1.10-crore women have got gas cylinders and there is construction of houses and toilets,” he added.

Shah has been focussing on politically significant Bihar, which has been known for triangular politics revolving around the BJP, RJD and the JD-U. Two sides getting together have always overwhelmed the third. Since chief minister Nitish Kumar broke away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined hands with the RJD, Shah has been frequently visiting the state to prepare the organisation for the big challenge ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats, out of which the NDA bagged 39 in 2019 in the company of the JD-U.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues.

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