'We distribute pens, BJP swords': Tejashwi
Siwan (Bihar), Feb 22 (PTI) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday charged the BJP with "distributing swords" among the people, using the metaphor for social strife, and asserted that "we want to put pens in your hands", pointing towards his party's focus on job creation.
Yadav, who lost the post of Bihar deputy chief minister last month when JD(U) president Nitish Kumar returned to the BJP-led NDA, made the remark at a rally in Siwan district as part of his state-wide 'Jan Vishwas Yatra'.
"We are trying to see pens in your hands (hum aapko kalam pakdane ka kaam kar rahe hain) but BJP tries to distribute swords and spread venom (talwar baantne aur zahar bone ka kaam karti hai)," he alleged.
Yadav, who has of late taken the line that Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister in Bihar, was past his prime and the fight in the state was "mainly between RJD and BJP", also slammed the saffron party for blending religious sentiments with politics.
"I come from a background where religion is assigned its proper place. We have a temple at our home where we regularly pray. But we also know that if we work against the interests of people, no amount of temple visits and holy dips would absolve us of our sins," said the young leader, whose father Lalu Prasad is the RJD's founding president.
Yadav's 'pen-versus-sword' metaphor could be seen as an attempt at image makeover for the RJD, which has for long been associated with a style of politics that depended heavily on the use of muscle power.
Notably, he made the remarks in a district which was once the stronghold of Shahabuddin, a dreaded figure in his lifetime, who had won the Siwan Lok Sabha seat for the RJD until getting disqualified following convictions in a number of serious criminal cases.
Significantly, Yadav, who had reached Siwan on Wednesday night and stayed until leaving for the adjacent district of Saran, did not meet Hina, the widow of Shahabuddin, who had unsuccessfully contested the Siwan seat, on an RJD ticket, in the last general elections.
Besides hurling barbs at the Bihar CM for his volte-face, "lack of vision" and "inability to welcome new ideas and run the state forward", Yadav alleged that his former boss accepted only grudgingly his insistence that the Mahagathbandhan government fulfil RJD's "10 lakh government jobs" promise.
The RJD leader, who is scheduled to wind up the yatra on March 1 and share the stage in Patna with senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi, also asked party supporters to turn up at the state capital in huge numbers.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, who is also a former Bihar BJP president, alleged, "Criminals got patronage in the 17 months RJD shared power and Tejashwi Yadav was the deputy chief minister." "The state of affairs had filled Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with disgust, a reason why he chose to return to the BJP-led NDA," Rai claimed in a statement. PTI
