Anurag Thakur warns against voting for RJD that 'created jungle raj in Bihar'

Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday quoted a Gabbar Singh dialogue from the 1975 blockbuster Sholay to warn the people of Bihar against voting for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which, he said, created jungle raj (reign of terror) in the state.

“So ja bete nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayega (sleep child or Gabbar will come).”

Mothers, who have seen the jungle raj days in Bihar, please do tell your children, especially youth, on the polling day to cast their votes carefully, otherwise they (the RJD) may return to power… those who ran a regime of terror and fear,” Thakur told a press conference.

He called the RJD-led Grand Alliance a “depressed and confused” lot. Thakur reminded the electorate how a series of massacres along caste lines occurred in Bihar before the RJD exited from power in 2005.

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Representatives of allies JD(U) and HAM were present at the press conference.

“I just want to ask the RJD and its leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav why did he align with the CPI(ML), tukde-tukde gangs, or those who believe in perpetrating massacres?” the Union minister asked. “Do they want to bring the jungle raj days back in Bihar, or do they want the state to witness bloodshed once again?”

Thakur wondered how will the people trust Tejashwi Yadav, the opposition alliance’s chief ministerial candidate, when he got even the photographs of his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad removed from party’s posters and hoardings.

The minister said Tejashwi also neglected his allies like the HAM of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, RLSP of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) of Mukesh Sahni. All of them were forced to leave the Grand Alliance, he said.

Thakur added that “double-engine growth” powered by the alliance governments at the Centre and the state has brought about positive changes in Bihar.

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He said that the distinction between the 15 years of NDA rule and 15 years of Lalu-Rabri dispensation was clear from the per capita income, which stands at ₹43,000 now against ₹8,000 in 2005, the last year of the RJD government.

The  state’s growth rate has gone up from 3.5 per cent under the RJD to 11.5 per cent under the NDA government. Two AIIMS were set up in Bihar, besides central universities, engineering and medical colleges, power supply and road and rail connectivity were strengthened, he said.