Mind your work, JD(U) tells Bihar agri minister after his ‘corruption’ outburst

D(U)’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha told reporters on Wednesday that Singh should concentrate on his work instead of making controversial statements to put the government in the dock.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday rebuked state’s agriculture minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Sudhakar Singh, who has kicked off a storm with his recent statement that there was “rampant corruption” in his own department and that he could rightfully be called “choron ka sardar (leader of the thieves)”, leaving several red faces in the government.

Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh. (HT Photo)

Kumar heads an alliance government of JD(U), RJD and Congress, besides other smaller parties.

JD(U)’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha told reporters on Wednesday that Singh should concentrate on his work instead of making controversial statements to put the government in the dock. “If the minister finds some wrongs in the department, he should fix them. It is not good that he is making such statements. If he has some issues, he should talk to deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (RJD),” Kushwaha said.

Sudhakar Singh, who is the son of state RJD president Jagdanand Singh, has also been questioning the state government’s agricultural policies.

On Tuesday, there were unconfirmed reports suggesting that an upset chief minister had ticked off the minister during a cabinet meeting and that a defiant Singh had offered to resign and walked out of the cabinet meeting in a huff.

The minister, however, dismissed these reports. “I have never offered to resign. RJD chief Lalu Prasad is our leader and I continue to hold the post by his blessings,” Singh told reporters in Patna on Wednesday.

CM Kumar said he wanted to know from the minister what had happened and what was the issue. “But he didn’t say anything and went away. When I saw his statement, I asked the department officials to look into minister’s allegation. But he preferred to walk out,” Kumar told reporters on Wednesday.

A few days back, Singh, while addressing a gathering of farmers in Kaimur, had talked about widespread corruption in his department, including in distribution of seeds and fertilisers.

The minister has remained combative after his statement was widely reported. “I am only saying what people feel about the department,” he said.

On Tuesday, Singh once again raised eyebrows when, speaking at a public event in Patna, he said there was no need for a fourth edition of agricultural road map as farmers had not received much benefits from the last three agricultural road maps — part of one of the ambitious programmes of CM Kumar launched first in 2008 to boost the agricultural productivity and upgrade farm sector when he was heading an NDA government in Bihar in alliance with BJP.

Before August this year, when Nitish Kumar snapped ties with BJP and formed government in alliance with RJD, Congress and others, the agriculture portfolio had mostly remained with the BJP in the successive NDA governments since 2005. Since the assembly elections in 2020, Amrendra Pratap Singh of BJP had held the portfolio.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said the agriculture minister’s observation about “corruption” in his department was a challenge to the chief minister.

State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said the minister had raised very pertinent questions. “Even the BJP has raised questions which Singh is raising. The shortage of fertilizer has happened because of connivance of agricultural officers and fertilizer traders,” he said.