Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called RJD president Lalu Prasad and his family "the biggest offenders of Bihar", accusing them of ushering in jungle raj in the state during its more than a decade-long rule.
Addressing a rally in Bettiah, West Champaran district, Modi alleged that the youths of Bihar had been compelled to migrate in large numbers due to the misrule of the RJD-Congress combine. He asserted that it was only after the NDA took charge that the state began to witness improvements.
Modi also unveiled projects worth Rs 12,800 crore in the State. Governor Rajendra V Arlekar, Deputy CMs Samat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and state minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary of the JD(U) were among those present at the programme. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was, however, not present at the programme.
"The family responsible for jungle raj...They are biggest offenders (sabse bade gunahgar) of Bihar. Their misrule imperilled the future of an entire generation. Youths were forced to migrate to other parts of the country, while only one family prospered", said Modi.
The PM also reacted to Prasad's barb that his attacks on dynastic politics stemmed from his having "no family" and said "had people like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Karpoori Thakur been alive, these people would have attacked them, too, for not promoting their own families".
"Their main grouse against me seems to be that I have no family. For me, the entire country is my family. And today the entire nation is saying that it sees itself as Modi Ka Parivar", the PM said.
Notably, leaders and supporters of the BJP have suffixed "Modi Ka Parivar" to their social media handles, in an obvious rebuff to the RJD supremo and in a show of solidarity with the PM.
In an apparent reference to DMK leader A Raja's controversial remarks, the PM said, "West Champaran is the land of Sage Valmiki, where Goddess Sita took shelter and Luv-Kush were born. The people here will not forgive the insults being heaped on Lord Ram by INDI alliance leaders. The people are also taking note as to who are encouraging such attacks on our culture and tradition".
The Prime Minister also renewed the pitch for a "400 plus tally" for the BJP-led NDA in upcoming Lok Sabha polls, asserting that it was "needed to make India the third largest economy in the world and to pull people out of the clutches of poverty".
The PM inaugurated the 109-km-long Muzaffarpur-Motihari LPG pipeline of Indian Oil, which will not only provide cleaner cooking fuel to the people of Bihar but also to neighbouring Nepal.
He also inaugurated Indian Oil's LPG bottling plant and storage terminal at Motihari. It would also act as a strategic supply point for the export of petroleum products to Nepal, besides the eight districts of north Bihar. The PM laid the foundation stone of the city gas distribution project in East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan and Deoria, and grain-based ethanol projects at HCPCL Biofuels Ltd's facilities at Sugauli and Lauriya.
He also inaugurated the two-laning of the Piprakothi-Motihari-Raxaul section of NH-28A and the Sheohar-Sitamarhi section of NH-104. He laid the foundation stone for a six-lane cable bridge over the Ganga, parallel to Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge, and the four-laning of the Bakarpur Hat-Manikpur section of NH-19 bypass.
Among the railway projects he inaugurated were the doubling of the 62-km line from Bapudham Motihari to Piprahan, and the gauge conversion of the Narkatiaganj-Gaunaha section.
The PM also laid the foundation stone for the doubling and electrification of the 96-km-long Gorakhpur Cantt–Valmiki Nagar rail line, and the redevelopment of the Bettiah railway station. He flagged off two new trains on the Narkatiaganj-Gaunaha and Raxaul-Jogbani routes.
