Bihar government will form committee, take stringent action against land mafia: Amit Shah

Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Bihar government will form a committee to look into the cases of land grabbing and warned of stringent action against the land mafia allegedly patronised by RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Shah made the statement at a public meeting in Paliganj, about 50 km from Patna, organised by the BJP OBC Morcha.

"People like Lalu Prasad have done nothing for the betterment of OBCs and extremely backward classes. All they have been doing is grabbing land belonging to 'pichhda' and 'ati-pichhda'," he alleged.

The allusion was apparently to the land for jobs scam, pertaining to the RJD supremo's tenure as the railway minister in the Manmohan Singh government, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Many members of Prasad's family have been named as accused in the case.

Shah said, "Today, I want to warn all the land mafia. The double-engine government is back in Bihar. The NDA government will take stringent action ('ulta latkakar sidha kar degi') against all the land mafia."

"A committee will be set up by the new NDA government to look into all cases of land grabbing and recommend stern action," said Shah, who was on his first tour of Bihar since the BJP returned to power in the state, following the return of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to the NDA.

He also berated the opposition, alleging that the top brass of the Congress and RJD always worked for the interest of their families but did not do anything for the poor.

"The top brass of the Congress have always taken care of their families. In the name of backward people, Lalu-ji also lived his entire life for his family. Sonia Gandhi's only goal is to make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister, while Lalu-ji's aim is to make his son the chief minister," he claimed.

"If anyone can do good for the poor then it's only Narendra Modi and the BJP," he added.

Shah, who was addressing the "pichhda ati-pichhda sammelan", also slammed the Congress, an ally of the RJD, for its failure to honour former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur, an OBC stalwart.

He underscored that Thakur had formed his government, which is remembered for introducing quotas for the backward classes, with the support of Jan Sangh, the BJP's predecessor.

"Our 84 MPs had also supported the government of VP Singh who implemented the recommendations of Mandal Commission. Rajiv Gandhi had given a two-hour-long speech, vociferously opposing quotas for OBCs," he said.

Shah also teased Prasad by recounting the arrest of BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani in Bihar three decades ago.

"Was it not Lalu who got Advani-ji arrested? But he could do nothing when PM Modi presided over the consecration ceremony at Ayodhya," he said.

In 1990, Advani was mobilising public opinion in favour of the Ram temple through a "Ram Rath Yatra", which was stopped with his arrest in Samastipur.

Prasad was then the chief minister of Bihar and he prides himself on having ordered the move which is said to have earned him the unflinching support of a generation of Muslims in the state.

The Congress-RJD combine was also flayed by the home minister on the issue of Article 370, which was "done away with by Modi in his second term as the PM, and Kashmir was fully integrated with the nation".

Shah, who is widely regarded as BJP’s principal strategist, expressed confidence that the NDA will once again sweep the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, riding high on the goodwill enjoyed by Modi and the "double-engine government" in the state.