"Selfie", not selfless leadership: Nitish on Modi's 1st year

Patna, May 26: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his government completing one year in office, saying what people have got is "selfie leadership" instead of "selfless leadership" they had voted for in the Lok Sabha polls.

Slamming his bete noire, Kumar said the only remarkable thing during the one-year NDA rule was that the prime minister has more selfies than all his cabinet colleagues put together.

"He (Modi) has more selfies than all the ministers in his cabinet put together... What the people voted for was selfless leadership and what they have got is selfie leadership," Kumar said in a blog he wrote for a private TV channel as a reaction to Modi365.

"Apparently some of this (selfies) have created a new global recognition for India... Its typical illustration of more style over substance, more raucous about nothing than the music of change to the ears of common man," he said.

Kumar in his blog claimed that even the most articulate ministers and supporters of 'Modi sarkar' do not have an answer to the question as to what has the government accomplished.

"In contrast, any average person can easily tell you what the government did not deliver. Ask a farmer, an unemployed youth, a housewife, an artisan, an informed citizen, an academician or even the people who voted for Modi sarkar a year ago - they will have no problem articulating what the government did not deliver," he remarked.

Commenting on Modi's foreign tours, Kumar said, "Probably, the prime minister has so far visited more countries in the world than states in India, and he has certainly made more visits than the External Affairs minister of the country. Yet the border situation with respect to Pakistan and China has gotten worse."

He highlighted the alleged unfulfilled poll promises of the Prime Minister of bringing back every penny of black money, offering Rs 15 lakh - Rs 20 lakh from it to every poor person in the country and giving 5-10 per cent of it as gift to tax payers, especially the salaried class.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was the then BJP president, had set a 100-day timeline for it. "Moreover, Baba of Modi prime ministerial campaign yoga guru Ramdev publicly undersigned the commitment through his statements," Kumar said.

Continuing his criticism, he said farmers remember the PM's promise to raise minimum support price to 150 per cent of the input costs, while youths have repeatedly heard him promise that sufficient job opportunities would be created and families of defence personnel about the one rank one pension.

"But none of these have been delivered." Kumar in his blog said the music woven by Modi to come to power was on the wane.

"One year on, there is no magic anymore. There are signs of unprecedented rural distress and prices of all essential commodities continue to rise.

"The simplest answer about the Modi sarkar has come from the PM himself when he asked people of Delhi to vote for 'Naseebwala' in February this year. However, even this is failing," he remarked.

PTI