'Narendra Modi's remarks on Bihar were aimed at RJD rule'

Patna, June 12: Seeking to play down Gujarat Chief Minsiter

's remark that caste leaders had pushed

into economic backwardness, the BJP on Tuesday said the former was referring to the previous state governments including the RJD regime and not the current

dispensation.

"Modi did not make the remarks about the NDA government, but referred to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and earlier governments in Bihar," Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters here. Prasad had brazenly indulged in caste politics at the cost of development during the entire three terms of the RJD-led rule in Bihar in contrast to development agenda of the NDA which enjoy support of both upper and backward castes, besides other sections of the society, he claimed.

"I have seen the CD of Modi's speech and his remarks are not aimed at the NDA government...the Gujarat Chief Minister made the remarks about caste politics apparently to warn some of the BJP leaders against playing out caste politics," Bihar's deputy chief minister said.

He blamed a section of the media for twisting the Gujarat Chief Minister's remarks with an apparent intention to create controversy as if the reference was intended at the NDA government headed by Nitish Kumar. Kumar and Modi have had a strained relations ever since the former did not allow the BJP leader to campaign in Bihar during the 2009 general elections and a year later cancelled a dinner hosted for the visiting BJP leadership at the party's national executive in Patna, which was attended by the Gujarat chief minister.

PTI