BJP slams Nitish for proposing to visit Nepal

Patna, May 4: A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was reportedly told by the Centre to defer his Nepal trip, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi asked Kumar why he proposed to tour the country when he had not met people hit by natural calamities in his own state.

"Why do you (Kumar) want to visit Nepal when you have not visited the people in Bihar after an unseasonal rain, cyclone and earthquake left hundreds dead in addition to large-scale devastation to houses and crops?" he asked. [Nitish Kumar not allowed to visit quake-hit Nepal]

The Centre had asked Kumar to postpone his trip to Nepal to a more appropriate time as a massive rescue and relief operation was under way in that country after the high intensity earthquake.

"The Centre has not cancelled Kumar's visit to Nepal, but deferred it on the basis of a report from the ground by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar...as it will adversely affect rescue and relief works," Modi said.

Meanwhile, JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi expressing his displeasure at the development said he would raise the issue in Parliament tomorrow.

PTI