Even I have a mouth to open: Sushil Modi

In a tit-for-tat response to a warning from his ex-boss, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, today, dared chief minister Nitish Kumar to 'open' his mouth on ‘transgressions’ of BJP leaders. Anil Kumar reports.

In a tit-for-tat response to a warning from his ex-boss, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, on Friday, dared chief minister Nitish Kumar to 'open' his mouth on ‘transgressions’ of BJP leaders.

“We are waiting for him to open his mouth. We, too, have much to reveal (about him)”, Modi said, when asked about Kumar’s warning Monday many BJP leaders would be in trouble if he opened his mouth.

Modi, given to tom-tomming the Nitish regime’s 'good governance' till the chief minister sacked him and 10 other BJP ministers on June 16, reiterated governance in Bihar had become the “first casualty” since the BJP’s exit.

“The chief minister, holding 18 portfolios, is so pre-occupied with preserving his wafer thin majority in the state assembly that governance is on a ventilator”, Modi said, after a daylong sit over the Bagaha police firing.

“There’s complete paralysis in government functioning, thanks to the political uncertainty”, he said, in a reference to 126 votes secured by Kumar in a house of 243 during a floor test on June 18.

This was well short of the government’s three-fourths majority (209 in 243), when the 91-member BJP was a part of the Nitish-led coalition regime till the JD (U) broke off from the NDA following a scrap over Narendra Modi.

Asked whether the BJP was trying to appease Muslims by bringing out a vision document on issues concerning them, Modi said no government could ignore the genuine claim of any group - minority, backward caste or dalit. “The BJP ruled states have an excellent record of taking care of all sections of society and have not discriminated against any section of the society”, he said.

As for whether the BJP might consider projecting a Muslim as its chief ministerial candidate during the coming assembly elections, Modi said the party would take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time.

“At this point of time, this question is premature,” he said.