BJP-JD(U) face off yet again over bulldozer mode of governance in Bihar

A war of words has erupted once again between the leading partners of the ruling alliance over the bulldozer culture of governance—coined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to drive its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh—after the police resorted to heavy machines to attach the house of an absconding criminal in Chapra on Saturday.

PATNA: A war of words has erupted once again between the leading partners of the ruling alliance over the bulldozer culture of governance—coined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to drive its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh—after the police resorted to heavy machines to attach the house of an absconding criminal in Chapra on Saturday.

A drive against encroachment being carried out in Patna on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Janata Dal (United )’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday said that Bihar didn’t require a bulldozer culture as the Nitish Kumar model of governance is tried and tested and effective enough to check crimes. “Running bulldozer over houses of the criminals is not justified. There are other ways to reign in criminals,” said Kushwaha, adding that it was Kumar, who not only made the state get rid of its image as a ‘jungle raj’, but also helped it establish several milestones related to growth after 2005.

“The Nitish model of governance is being talked about across the country to curb crimes. The state doesn’t require the bulldozer regime. The bulldozers should be used to remove encroachments on government property,” added Kushwaha, also a former Union minister.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and agriculture minister Amarendra Pratap Singh, however, supported the police action in Chapra and said that bulldozers should run over properties of defiant criminals, who have no respect for the law. “The act to use bulldozers would instill a sense of administrative fear among the criminals like it’s being used to check crime in Uttar Pradesh,” said Singh.

Taking a swipe at the ongoing tussle between the BJP and the JD(U) over bulldozer culture, Congress senior leader and All India Congress Committee (AICC) media panelist Prem Chandra Mishra said that the bulldozer culture is very much prevailing in Bihar. “Bulldozer culture signifies autocracy, the growing influence of bureaucracy over governance, and no regard for elected leaders. All are prevailing in Bihar,” said Mishra, adding that CM Kumar had already endorsed the bulldozer culture by participating in the swearing-in ceremony of Yogi Adityanath as CM of Uttar Pradesh.

The call for resorting to a bulldozer style of governance in Bihar was raised first in the assembly when BJP MLAs including Haribhushan Thakur and Vinay Bihar after Yogi Adityanath’s regime managed to get the thumping majority in UP after the state polls. Many senior JD(U) leaders including energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav had objected to the BJP’s instance of replicating Yogi’s model of governance to establish the rule of law.

The Yogi government had bulldozed properties of many alleged criminals in the state and the BJP leaders had made it the chief electoral agenda to win the popular confidence.

Former CM and senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi, too, had advocated using harsh action against anti-socials in the backdrop of the physical assault on Nitish Kumar in Bihar Sharif and said that the state, too, needs a CM with bulldozers at disposal. Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, however, had mocked Yogi’s bulldozer style saying his bulldozers had miserably failed to demolish inflation and unemployment in UP and check law and order.