‘Bihar will not forget this insult’: Day after Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhath pooja ka drama’ jibe, PM Modi hits out at RJD, Congress

The Prime Minister’s remarks at the rally in Muzaffarpur were in response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s jibe on Wednesday that “agar Modi ji ko drama karna hai, Chhath pooja ka drama karna hai, tab paani aa jaayega, video aa jaayenge (If Modi has to enact the drama of Chhath pooja, water and videos will be arranged)”.

“When your son (Modi) wants to make Chhath popular across the world, the Congress and RJD are insulting Chhathi Maiyya. Tell me–can anyone insult Chhathi Maiyya only for votes? Will Bihar and India tolerate it? Will mothers who fast on Chhath tolerate it? How shameless are the RJD and Congress? For them, this puja is a drama and nautanki? Will you punish such people or not?” Modi said.

“For RJD, this is a drama. Will the mothers and sisters of Bihar tolerate this insult? This is an insult to all people who have faith in Chhathi Maiyya. Bihar will not forget this insult for the coming hundreds of years… Our Bihar is the land of self-respect. It will never forget those who insulted Chhath puja,” he added.

Modi sought to contrast this with the “respect” the BJP and NDA had for Chhath–“the pride of Bihar and the nation”.

“We are trying to get the Chhath festival added to the heritage list of UNESCO. Will it not make every Bihari proud when it is added there? Will not every Indian be proud?” Modi said, adding that the government will organise a competition of songs dedicated to Chhath, and that the people will choose which are the best. “The writers and singers of the top songs will be felicitated before the next Chhath festival,” he said.

Ones who are dynastic will anyway abuse me: Modi’s dig at ‘two princes’

In a jab aimed at Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son, Modi said, the two “Yuvrajs (crown princes)” have set up a shop of false promises. “One is the Yuvraj of the most corrupt family of India, and the other of the most corrupt family of Bihar. They are both out on bail in scams. They have abused Modi a lot yesterday. The ones who are dynastic will anyway abuse me. To abuse Dalits and backwards, they think, is their birthright. This is why they hate me and abuse me. They can’t tolerate that a backward person, a poor person who sold tea, has reached this position. But he has not reached because of you–he has reached where he has because of the blessings of the people and the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Modi said.

He said the infighting between the RJD and the Congress is like a combination of water and oil in a glass. “Only greed for power has brought them together. They want to loot Bihar again,” he said. Asserting that the people of Bihar can see through this, Modi claimed that the RJD and the Congress would face their worst defeat ever in the elections in November and get their lowest tally, while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would win its largest victory.

Modi bats for development of Bihar

Modi said that the Opposition allies were so scared that they were making promises that could never be fulfilled. “People of Bihar will not be deceived. They will vote for an NDA government again,” he said, adding that the development of Bihar was the NDA’s greatest priority and that it was necessary for a developed India.

Saying that the RJD had always betrayed Bihar, Modi said, “What have the RJD and Congress done? What have the jungle raj people done? There are five words – katta (country guns), kroorta (cruelty), katuta (bitterness), kushasan (bad governance) and corruption,” he said.

He said Bihar needs industry, land, electricity, connectivity, and law and order, but the Opposition alliance looted land, kept Bihar in the “lalten yug (the lantern era)’—a dig at the RJD symbol—and indulged in corruption.

Fishery as a sector had grown in Bihar under the NDA, Modi said, and mentioned the Makhana Board announced by his government. “Today, Bihar is observing the GST Bachat Utsav. People are buying new bikes and scooters. Fresh data say that one year ago, in September-October last year, 50,000 bikes were sold in Bihar, but this year, 1.5 lakh bikes were sold in the same time period. Tell me–are you not happy with prices going down?” Modi said amid loud cheers.

“This was not possible during the jungle raj. In those days, vehicle showrooms had also shut down because RJD leaders used to indulge in looting of showrooms. If someone bought a new vehicle, RJD goons would be after them. Employment dipped, and people migrated because of this,” he added.

Modi also mentioned the kidnapping of a child called Golu when the RJD was in power, and his murder because his family could not pay the ransom. He claimed that the RJD’s campaign songs still referred to guns, and they were threatening kidnappings of women.

Modi said he wished that eatables from Bihar should be found everywhere in the world, adding that his government’s schemes were aimed at that.

‘Phir ek baar NDA sarkar’

PM Modi also named well-known local figures, from Rajendra Prasad to Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, and also Captain Jainarayan Nishad – the latter reference meant as an outreach to the EBC Nishads after Mukesh Sahani’s VIP, a party of Mallahs, a subcaste of Nishads that allied with the INDIA bloc. “We made Bhagwan Lal Sahani (a Nishad) the chairperson of the OBC Commission,” Modi said.

Reaching out to Dalits, he recalled how his government had developed the Panch Teerths (five pilgrimage places) of Ambedkar. Modi added that the Bhim app was named after Ambedkar, whose research was on the rupee.

“Be it Narendra or Nitish ji, empowerment of sisters is our commitment,” Modi said, emphasising that Rs 10,000 had been transferred to the accounts of women in Bihar. “When the NDA forms the government, we will provide more incentives to women,” he added.

While Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has made it clear that Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister if the NDA wins, PM Modi stuck to the primacy of the NDA as an alliance and repeatedly raised the slogan, “Phir ek baar NDA sarkar… Bihar mein phir se sushasan sarkar (Once again, an NDA government; Once again, a good governance government in Bihar).”