BJP whips up emotional issue to conceal its failure: Nitish Kumar

Patna, Feb 19: Launching a blistering attack on the Narendra Modi government over the JNU row, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the BJP-led dispensation has triggered an emotional issue in a bid to hide its failure on economic front.

"Since they have failed miserably on economic front after making tall claims during 2014 parliamentary elections, they (BJP and RSS) have triggered an emotional issue (JNU event) to hide the failure," Nitish told reporters after a state cabinet meeting.

He also criticised the Centre for levelling sedition charge on JNU student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who hails from Bihar, without any evidence.

"If they have any evidence that justifies Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest on sedition charge, why do not they make it public?" he asked, and said that "JNU is on their (BJP and RSS) target because there is negligible percentage of people who believe in saffron ideology".

"People of other parties are also nationalist...but they do not require a certificate of nationalism from them (BJP or RSS)," he said.

Recently condemning arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges, Nitish had said it was "too much of a design" to impose the ideology of ABVP, the student wing of RSS, on the nation. He had claimed on Monday that it was "like imposing Emergency" in the country.

The senior JD(U) leader joined Left parties and Congress in demanding evidence from Home Minister Rajnath Singh showing JNUSU president raising anti-India slogans and that Lashkar-e- Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed supported the JNU stir.

Seeking to turn the tables on the BJP, the Bihar Chief Minister asked "if BJP general secretary Ram Madhav meeting an Independent MLA in Jammu and Kashmir (Engineer Rashid) who organised many events in memory of Parliament attacker Afzal Guru, is a display of nationalism?" He also criticised the attack on JNUSU president and mediapersons in the court premises.

PTI