Author: PNS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 12, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/175637/Nitish-suitors-turn-baiters.html
PM should stop behaving like vice-chancellor
of university of secularism, says CM
Congress media cell chief Veerappa Moily must
be wondering why he was punished for criticising Nitish Kumar when Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on Monday himself joined Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan in
questioning the 'secular' credentials and performance of the Bihar Chief Minister.
Nitish hit back saying he did not need their
certificates to prove his secular politics and accused the PM of misleading
the nation on the issue of the Centre's demand to seek refund of Rs 1,000
crore of aid given to the State for relief to the Kosi flood victims.
Singh, who was in Punjab on the last leg of
his election tour on Monday where he termed 1984 Sikh riots as painful, said,
"Nitish Kumar professes to be a secular leader, but after seeing him
shaking hands with Narendra Modi, a doubt did arise in my mind."
The Prime Minister was asked by reporters whether he considered Nitish, who
had rebuffed Congress overtures, to be communal or secular after he shared
the dais with Modi and shook hands at the NDA rally in Ludhiana on Sunday.
The Prime Minister also slammed Nitish for
accusing the Centre of not giving money promised as compensation to victims
of last year's Kosi floods in Bihar. "Whatever Nitish has said is absolutely
false. The fault of not spending the money is of the State Government and
not of the Centre," the PM said.
Nitish also drew barbs from Lalu and Paswan
who flayed him for Modi's handshake and used the opportunity to attack the
Congress over its overtures to the JD(U) leader and questioned Rahul Gandhi's
praise of him.
"People like Rahul Gandhi, who had given
Nitish the secular certificate and others who favourably spoke of him will
realise how secular he is," Lalu said, adding "Nitish has 'teeth
in his stomach' (a complicated person)."
In a similar vein, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan
said, "Those who are propagating the JD(U) leader's secular credentials...
need to think twice."
Taking on the Prime Minister, an angry Nitish
told reporters in Patna, "I don't require a certificate on my secularist
credentials from the Prime Minister.
"He should stop behaving like the vice-chancellor
of the university of secularism," Nitish said. "If somebody extends
a hand to shake what would you do? It is a matter of common courtesy. I have
proved my credentials through my work," Nitish said.
Stating that the rally was by the NDA and
he went there as its leader, Nitish said, "I am in the NDA and will continue
to remain there."
Asked about the Congress' flip-flop, praising
him first and then questioning his secularism, Kumar said, "I expect
neither praise nor do I care about criticism. The Congress-led Union Government
has done injustice to Bihar (in Kosi relief assistance). I did not expect
this from Manmohan Singh."
At the same time, JD(U) national spokesman
Shivanand Tewari reminded Manmohan Singh and Lalu Prasad of 1984 anti-Sikh
riots and Bhagalpur communal mayhem and said they had no business to question
Nitish Kumar's commitment to secularism.
"Leaders of parties who presided over
brutal killings of minorities have no moral right to question the Bihar CM's
secular credentials when his Government has done utmost for the protection
and welfare of the minority community," he said.
Incidentally, while attacking Nitish for shaking
hands with Modi, the Prime Minister, who has time and again revived the ghost
of Gujarat riots, wanted the nation to forget the anti-Sikh mayhem. "The
riots (of 1984) were painful, but cannot be kept alive for ever," he
said.
The issue had assumed political significance
when a senior journalist hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram to protest
against the CBI's clean chit to Jagdish Tytler, a key accused of 1984 riots.
Returning to the substantive issue of the
Prime Minister's criticism on Bihar not spending the money provided by the
Centre for flood relief, Nitish had attacked Manmohan Singh and accused him
of misrepresenting the facts.
"The Prime Minister is misleading the
nation on this issue. Bihar Chief Secretary RJM Pillai received a letter from
Director of the National Disaster Department-I Dev Kumar on April 30, barely
20 minutes after the polling in Kosi region was over," Kumar told reporters
at his office.
"The Prime Minister's statement is surprising.
If it is not injustice then what is it? The Prime Minister should have gone
through the related documents and given due consideration to the whole issue
and then gone public about it. Instead he chose to attack the Bihar Government
for its alleged failure to spend the relief assistance properly," Nitish
Kumar said.
Asked if constitutional norms were being violated
by the Centre's action, Kumar said, "There can be no doubt about it.
The norms are indeed being flouted. The Centre is asking us to pay back the
money. It is like rubbing salt on our wounds. Where is the money to be returned?
It all went toward providing succour to the suffering humanity."
"As per the recommendation of the 11th
Finance Commission, the entire money in the Calamity Relief Fund is merged
into the Consolidated Fund at the end of each fiscal, thereby rendering the
balance nil, whereas the Centre's top disaster management department officer
says since Bihar Government had an opening balance of Rs 905.24 crore as on
01/04/08, it could not retain the money as relief and would have to refund
it," Kumar said.
"The Centre's decision is grossly unjust.
While we need more money for rehabilitation of thousands of people still without
livelihood in the five districts of the Kosi region, the Centre is demanding
back whatever it had given to us, that too when the Prime Minister himself
declared the flood as a national calamity," Kumar said.
Nitish Kumar said the Bihar Government was
given to believe during the disaster that the Centre would extend financial
support with the same generosity with which it helped States like Orissa,
Gujarat and other coastal States in tackling cyclones, earthquakes and tsunami.
"But in our case, it has been the reverse.
Instead of expeditiously granting our request for Rs 14,800 crore for rehabilitation
of Kosi victims, it wants us to give back whatever little that came our way,"
Kumar said.
The Chief Minister said he would write to
the Prime Minister seeking immediate withdrawal of the letter and clear the
rehabilitation package without any further delay.
