Farmers Movement Archive

Unemployment in Bihar to be a major poll issue: Tejashwi Prasad Yadav

PATNA: In a fresh salvo against CM Nitish Kumar, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Sunday alleged that corruption was at its peak in the government offices and people were forced to oblige the officials for getting their work done. Tejashwi said the issues of unemployment, inept handling of floods and Covid-19 pandemic and poor health services will dominate the electioneering for state assembly election due in October-November. “I challenge CM Nitish Kumar to name a block or a police station where people’s work is done without ‘sushashni chadhawa’ to the officials concerned. If he has any doubt, visit those offices incognito,” he tweeted. He also took a dig at Nitish and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi over their on providing jobs to migrant workers and transferring money in their bank accounts during the Covid-19 lockdown. “The ground reality is different altogether,” he said. Reacting to the RJD leader’s statement, IPRD minister Neeraj Kumar said, “When his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad is serving jail sentence in fodder scam cases and his family has been accused of amassing unaccounted assets, he (Tejashwi) has no right to speak about corruption.” Neeraj said CM Nitish has always fought against corruption and has put behind bars those who defied the ‘zero tolerance’ policy of the government on corruption. Meanwhile, in an interview to PTI on Sunday, Tejashwi asserted that RJD is the “natural leader of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and seat-sharing issue will be settled soon. Hitting out at the Modi government at the Centre over the issue of the three farm bills, he said RJD will fight “tooth and nail” against this “corporatisation of the agriculture sector”. “These bills will strip farmers of their financial security net which has been safeguarded by provisions like public procurement and MSP (minimum support price),” he said. Why did a Union cabinet minister resign if the bills were not “anti-farmer”, he asked, referring to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Asserting that his party will fight the Bihar polls on people’s issues, Tejashwi said this is going to be an election between “unemployed youths, pro-democracy and pro-Constitution forces versus an authoritarian, divisive and anti-constitution regime”. Asked if the Sushant Singh Rajput case could be a poll issue with many leaders raising it, Tejashwi said, “We were the first to demand a CBI inquiry into Sushant’s death. Since the investigation has begun, we shall have faith in it and wait for its results. We never made it a political issue and it shouldn't be one,” he said. Claiming that Nitish has “failed miserably” on all these fronts in his nearly 15-year-long rule, he said, “Our state should not suffer due to shrewd deflection strategies of the BJP-JD(U).” The leader of opposition in state assembly asserted that unemployment was the most critical challenge the country and Bihar in particular should address. “Over 4.5 lakh posts are lying vacant since long and I assure the youth of Bihar that if voted to power, our government in the first cabinet meeting will float these vacancies and the process will be completed within a stipulated time frame,” he said, adding he would also bring in a ‘domicile policy’ in government jobs if voted to power. Asked about the Centre rolling out a slew of development projects and schemes for Bihar, Tejashwi alleged that announcing projects on the eve of election to lure voters were “hallmarks” of both Nitish and PM Modi. “Grandiose PR (public relations) exercises are a poor substitute for governance. Nitish ji cannot cheat Bihar again. ‘Kaath ki haandi baar baar nahi chadhti’,” he said. Asked about LJP chief Chirag Paswan’s jibes at Nitish and JD(U), Tejashwi said he would not comment as it’s NDA’s business, but added that people are observing how an NDA ally is questioning own government, its policies and echoing opposition’s voice.

The Times of India

2020-09-21

Patna