It’s ‘trouble-engine’ govt in Bihar, says Tejashwi at GA meet

Presenting a ‘report card’ on one and half years of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar on Sunday, leader of the opposition and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav lashed out at the state government for its failure on multiple fronts and exhorted the people to stay prepared for a long-drawn battle against communal forces.

PATNA: Presenting a ‘report card’ on one and half years of the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance’s government in Bihar on Sunday, leader of the opposition and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav lashed out at the state government for its failure on multiple fronts and exhorted the people to stay prepared for a long-drawn battle against communal forces.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addresses a gathering during the Grand Alliance Representative meeting in Patna on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“Some people say it is a double-engine government. But it’s a ‘trouble-engine’ government in Bihar, wherein price rise, farm distress, labourers and unemployment are at its peak and the Constitution is under threat,” said Tejashwi while addressing a Mahagathbandhan (GA) sponsored event held at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna.

Leaders of the left parties, including D Raja of the Community Party of India (CPI), Sitaram Yechuri of the CPI (Marxist), and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI (ML) also addressed the meeting, which coincided with the Total Revolution Day.

Attacking the Nitish government for mounting miseries on the downtrodden, minorities, and the deprived sections, Tejashwi said that the NDA, which bagged barely 12,000 more votes than GA, formed the government through backdoors. “Total vote count of GA would have exceeded the NDA if results of Bochahan bypoll are taken into account. The GA had won the seat with margin of 36,000 votes,” he said, alleging that the Bihar government is being run on the directions of Nagpur.

The opposition leader also made a veiled attack on the Congress for leaving the GA and said that they (Congress leaders) parted ways as they had bowed to secular forces. “Ambition is a good thing in politics. But overambitious often leads one to nowhere,” Tejashwi said, adding that the ruling coalition had set the narratives around Hindu-Muslims, Mandir-Masjid, and Kashmir that help them mobilise votes on sentiments. “Nobody is ready to discuss real issues like deteriorating conditions of the state, special status issue to Bihar,” he added.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who could not attend the event due to illness, called the people believing in secular ideology to stay united and fight against the fascist forces, which had pushed the country on the verge of a civil war due to uncontrolled price rise, unemployment, and corruption.

Citing the Bihar Economic Survey report, the report card claimed that though the per capita income of the state had risen steadily, it remained almost stagnant since 2005 if compared with the national average. Likewise, there has been no change in the human development index in the state between 2011-12 and 2017-18.

Quoting the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCACR) statistics, the report card stated that there was marginal growth in the agriculture sector during 2001-02 and 2017-18 (2.04%) as compared to 1.98% growth during the year 2001-02 and 2007-08. This, despite the fact that the state government had launched three agriculture road maps. The report said that procurement system of wheat suffered from inconsistencies, which made the farmers suffer losses.

As per the Niti Aayog Report, 2021, about 50% of people still don’t have toilets in the state despite the doling out incentives to the people for building them under the open defecation-free mission. Over 63% of people still depend on firewood or cow dung cakes for cooking while more than 65% don’t have pucca houses.

In terms of health infrastructure, Bihar remained positioned on 18th among the 19 major states. While the number of primary health centres has increased slightly in 2021 as compared to 2005, the count of health sub-centres and community health centres (CHCs) has come down during the same period. About 65% of the positions of doctors and technical staff remained vacant in different health institutions.

The report also cornered the government on the issue of alleged irregularities in recruitments by Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) and State Selection Committee (SSC), attendance in schools, failure of the prohibition act, and corruption in CM’s seven resolve schemes among other issues.

Meanwhile, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Ajit Sharma attacked the RJD for not inviting the party to the event alleging that the mandate was for the GA inclusive of Congress and not for the RJD and Left parties alone. “There should at least pictures of Congress top brasses on the banner as the fight against communal forces could not be accomplished without it,” added Sharma.

Earlier, talking to the media, CM Nitish Kumar said he did not take note of such things (report card on the government). “We are working people, we don’t do publicity. We don’t pay attention to all these things,” Kumar said.