Patna: The opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “lying to the people” over a central package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar, claiming that an RTI reply had revealed that no such financial package was sanctioned.
“The people of Bihar do not expect the Prime Minister to lie. He does not have the dignity needed for the Prime Minister’s post,” RJD Vice-President Shivanand Tiwari said while referring to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by one Mohamad Iqbal Ansari on April 4, 2017.
He claimed that the Financial Resources Division’s Chief Public Information Officer Jagat Hazarika had replied to the RTI plea that they don’t have any information regarding the issue.
Ansari had filed the RTI application in relation to a PMO press release of August 18, 2015 regarding the Prime Minister’s Rs 1,25,000-crore Bihar package sanctioned for the state that year.
“Following this, Ansari filed another RTI plea on May 29, 2019 with the state Finance Department, with its Joint Secretary-cum Public Information Officer maintined that there was no such plan related to the Prime Minister’s Bihar package of 2015. The Finance Department has not received any such financial package sanctioned by the Centre,” Tiwari said.
“Prime Minister Modi, BJP President JP Nadda and many other NDA leaders make claims about the Bihar package… if the Prime Minister’s package sanctioned in 2015 did not reach Bihar till May 2019, how can they make claims about it. They are lying to the public, and making false promises to woo the voters. We have documents to prove that they are telling a lie. What more proof is needed now after the RTI?” the RJD leader contended.
“Modi addressed a public rally in Chhapra. He did not talk about the real issues of Bihar,” Tiwari added.
He said that while Tejashwi Yadav had pointed out to massive unemployment in Bihar in the last 15 years, Modi did not utter a word on joblessness. “He had promised 2 crore jobs every year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but did not fulfil any promise.”
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Tiwari said: “During the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, people across the country thought that Nitish Kumar has the potential to become the PM one day. Now, we are witnessing his downfall in such a manner that the BJP does not want to take his name and projects itself ahead of the JD-U.”
“NDA leaders are disappointed and frustrated due to huge public turnout at Tejashwi’s rallies. I have never seen such massive turnouts in rallies of the NDA. During his early days in politics, RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad exhibited such charisma. I believe Tejashwi is surpassing him on the popularity front,” Tiwari remarked.