Bihar dy CM Tejashwi unfazed by case against him, says he has ‘nothing to fear’

Yadav said the BJP acted on expected lines the way it spread rumours in his absence about a rift in the Grand Alliance and split in parties

Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday claimed opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was getting restless and frightened with the prospect of losing power at the Centre in 2024 due to strong unity among non-BJP parties.

Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. (Santosh Kumar/ HT Photo)

He said he has nothing to prove to those who believe in levelling allegations without substance and targeting opposition as per situation.

“The first charge sheet was filed against me in 2017 and in 2020 I got a thumbs-up from the people’s court by emerging as the largest party in the Bihar assembly. There is no court bigger than that. They (BJP) want everyone to get cleaned of all sins in their ‘washing machine’ and use pressure tactics, but I don’t fear the BJP. Rather, they are fearing the opposition unity as the country has started talking about issues now, not Modi,” he said.

Giving the government’s response after the debate on budgetary demand for urban development and housing department, Yadav said the BJP acted on expected lines the way it spread rumours in his absence about a rift in the Grand Alliance (GA) and split in parties.

“It is after a long time that the Bihar BJP has taken to the streets, but what they are protesting on is something they themselves have a lot of answering to do – jobs. No state in the country can claim to have advertised 300,000 jobs as we have done, but they should answer about 20 million jobs annually that they had promised. We will also provide 1 million jobs. We walk the talk, and we are working on it,” he added.

Maintaining that Bihar was marching ahead under chief minister Nitish Kumar and “the BJP was up to spreading communal hatred”, he said the attack on dynastic politics by the BJP was also not looking good from them as they themselves have a long list of leaders who benefited from their fathers’ political legacy. Yadav also read out the names from a long list of such BJP leaders.

“The problem is that the BJP has nothing to show in terms of employment and development, while price rise has broken all records. People will ask for their report card, but they are distracting people. They will fail. People are more aware now and will not fall into the trap of empty rhetoric. They raise corruption, but people see that all corrupt people find safe havens in the BJP. The country’s culture, history, social fabric, beauty of diversity and democratic values are all being damaged one by one. Development means a lot more than brick and mortar. It is about last mile delivery. Without peace and social cohesion, prosperity is not possible,” he added.

Taking a dig at the BJP, he said the party had also started bringing ‘things’ for 2024 and Bihar was the biggest hurdle for them. “You know what things, but nothing will work here as all are united. It is good that they have taken to the streets after a long time for the cause of jobs. They have left the country with highest unemployment rate and up to privatising everything,” he added.

The BJP leaders sat outside the Assembly in protest on Thursday, and leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha said they had been stopped from reaching the assembly through brutal police action against a democratic protest.

“Nitish Kumar is shielding a charge sheeted deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav even though the BJP had made him the CM after the people of the state unitedly resolved to uproot the regime of fodder scam accused Lalu Prasad and his family. Today, he is sitting in their lap just to protect the chair,” he added.