Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reached Bihar’s Sitarmarhi to turn the volume up on campaigning as the state readies for phase two of the Assembly elections.
Lashing out at RJD, he said, “People of Bihar do not want ‘katta sark1ar’, they are giving sleepless nights to Opposition leaders,” and added that “First phase voter turnout in Bihar polls is 65-volt jhatka to jungle raj.”
“We are providing students with computers, footballs, hockey sticks, but RJD talks about giving ‘katta’ (country-made firearm) to people,” he said.
The PM, who has addressed over a dozen rallies since the elections were announced in the state, said, “Wherever I go, I find the prevailing sentiment is – we do not want a ‘katta sarkar’, we want an NDA sarkar again”.
He said the people “do not want a regime that would put ‘katta’ on their heads and ask them to hold their hands up”.
The RJD, he added, wants to turn children into ‘rangdaar’ (street bullies) upon growing up.
“Bihar definitely does not want a government which has ‘katta’, ‘kushasan’ (misgovernance), ‘kroorta’ (cruelty) and corruption to offer,” the PM asserted.
Accusing the Opposition of lying “blatantly” when it talks about development, the Prime Minister said, “These RJD and Congress people don’t even know the ABCs of industry. They only know how to lock down industries. Not a single major factory has been set up in Bihar in 15 years. The mills and factories that existed here in Mithila also closed down.”
Hailing the work of Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, whose party, JD(U), is in a coalition with the NDA, PM Modi said, “The NDA government under Nitish Kumar’s leadership has restored Bihar’s lost trust. Investors are now eager to come to Bihar. Good roads are being built here, rail and air connectivity has improved. New power plants are being built, and the Riga Sugar Mill has restarted operations. In the coming times, the work to build such mills and factories in Bihar will be intensified.”
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“This would never have been possible under the ‘jungle raj’ wallahs. Because, in the words of the father of the ‘naamdaar’ of Congress, the then Prime Minister, out of every rupee sanctioned by the government, only 15 paise reached the people. You all know the blood-stained hand (khooni panja) that was responsible for the loot,” he added, referring to Rahul Gandhi, late Rajiv Gandhi and the poll symbol of the opposition party.
Referring to himself as the “brand ambassador” of the heritage of Mithila, akin to the famous Madhubani paintings which he has been gifting to foreign dignitaries, he took another jibe at Rahul Gandhi, saying he’s been told “some people are practicing how to sink”.
Gandhi had recently jumped into a muddy pond during campaigning in Bihar to express solidarity with fishermen.
The PM also referred to the Punaura Dham project in Sitamarhi, the birthplace of Goddess Sita, as an example of the NDA’s regard for heritage (virasat), and lambasted the “naamdaar of Congress” for “insulting the faith of mothers and sisters by calling Chhath festival a drama, a nautanki”.
“Is it not an insult to our sentiments? Should they not be punished? In a democracy, the best way to punish is through the power of your vote. These people have been contemptuous of Maha Kumbh and the Ram temple at Ayodhya,” he said to the gathering at the rally.
“Because of their vote bank politics, the RJD-Congress has boycotted not just the Ram temple, but even shrines of Mata Shabri, Maharshi Valmiki and Nishad Raj in Ayodhya. Those who are guided by the politics of vote bank can never do good for the state. Their vote bank politics has led them to even protect infiltrators”, the PM said.
Taking up the ‘infiltrators’ angle a few notches, the PM asked: “Should infiltrators be allowed to stay in India? Should they not be driven back to the lands where they have come from? Who can ensure this? Not Modi, but the power of your one vote. Every single vote for the NDA will ensure that the infiltrators are driven away and not patronised here, letting them claim a share in resources meant for the country’s poor”.
He urged the people and political workers in the state to ensure that in the second and final phase of the Bihar elections, “record-breaking voting takes place, with every booth registering 100 votes more than in the previous elections”.
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