Senior JD (U) leader and state minister Ashok Choudhary.
Credit: X/@AshokChoudhaary
Patna: A key aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar slammed Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who has decided to embark on a state-wide tour to highlight alleged failures of the NDA government.
Senior JD (U) leader and state minister Ashok Choudhary on Saturday came out with a statement attacking Yadav, a day after the RJD leader announced his plans to undertake the yatra from August 15.
"In his press conference, Yadav had questioned the Nitish Kumar government's commitment to restore hiked reservations for deprived castes and alleged that despite being a part of the ruling alliance at the Centre, our party failed to secure special status for Bihar. He had also claimed that crime graph was soaring in the state," said Choudhary, who went on to debunk the charges.
The rural works minister, who, incidentally, is a Dalit, trained his guns at the RJD leader over his party's "failure" to give reservations to SCs and STs in panchayats "for the 15-year period during which it ruled Bihar".
Choudhary, who was formerly with the Congress and had served in the cabinet of Yadav's mother Rabri Devi from that party's quota, pointed out that "Dalits got their constitutional right (reservation in panchayats) only after Nitish Kumar came to power in 2005".
He added, "The RJD has, demonstrably, never been a well-wisher of Dalits and tribals. It was Nitish Kumar who set up a department for SC and ST welfare for which generous budgetary allocations are made." Choudhary also rapped Yadav for trying to put the state government in the dock over the hike in reservations for SCs, STs and backward classes, from 50 per cent to 65 per cent, getting quashed by the Patna High Court.
While the government has challenged the order before the Supreme Court, the RJD leader, whose party was sharing power in the state till January, has been accusing Kumar of failure to get the increased quotas placed in the Constitution's ninth schedule, which could make it immune to judicial review.
Choudhary also reminded Yadav that the caste survey, which gave revised estimates of the population of deprived castes, paving the way for a hike in quotas, was "a brainchild of our leader".
About special status, the JD (U) leader taunted Yadav that the latter's father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, had "failed to secure even a special package for Bihar though for years he enjoyed a clout with successive governments at the Centre".
He also underscored "rapid economic progress in Bihar where the total budget has exceeded Rs 2.78 lakh crore", compared to just over Rs 23,000 crore in 2005, before Nitish Kumar took over.
About Yadav's allegations on law and order, Choudhary said, "The RJD leader needs to remember that when his party was in power, Bihar used to be in the news for massacres." "While earlier charge-sheets against criminals were rare, under the Nitish Kumar government, we get to see speedy trial," said the JD (U) leader, who was formerly the party's working state president.