Faced with the ruling NDA’s bid to reignite its “Lalu-Rabri jungle raj” narrative in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly polls slated for October-November this year, the RJD seems to have decided to counter it aggressively. This was reflected in the state Assembly during the discussion on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address early this week.
Recently, the JD(U), led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has gone all out to hark back to the “jungle raj” allegations against the reign of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi during 1990-2005.
Addressing a joint rally with Nitish in Bhagalpur on February 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the RJD by referring to it as “jungle raj waale”.
Into his fourth consecutive term as the CM now, Nitish has always sought to draw a comparison, especially in his poll campaigns, between his tenure starting from 2005 and the 15-year-long Lalu-Rabri regime preceding it.
When Lalu’s son and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, participated in the motion of thanks debate in the House Tuesday, he came prepared with books and various reports to respond to Nitish’s perennial rhetorical question against the Lalu-Rabri rule – “2005 ke pahle kuchh tha ji? (Was there anything before 2005?)”
Mixing sarcasm with data in his speech, Tejashwi said, “I guess Bihar was born after 2005. Neither there was sun nor moon nor stars before 2005.” He reminded Nitish that the Governor’s address to the joint session of the Legislature also showcased, among his government’s achievements,
two lakh jobs given during 2022-24 when it was led by the Mahagathbandhan with Tejashwi as the deputy CM.
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The LoP then took a swipe at the CM, saying that “Nitish Kumar has now become repetitive and predictable. He sounds like a stuck record… But I will tell you what Lalu ji had done for Bihar”.
Citing author Mohan Guruswamy’s book, “India: Issues in Development”, Tejashwi said the latest annual per capita income of Bihar was $ 1,100 as compared to $ 1,710 of Sub-Saharan Africa, considered the poorest region of the world. “If Nitish Kumar remains in power for a longer period, he would start blaming the British and the 18th century regime for it,” he quipped.
“The first thing Lalu Prasad did since 1990 was to provide a stable government after Bihar had seen a change of government 22 times and the President’s rule five times since 1961. He brought about social transformation and empowerment, something which was not done in the last 150 years. It was under Lalu Prasad that people from EBC, OBC and SC communities became MPs, ministers and heads of Boards and Commissions,” Tejashwi said.
Reeling off figures, the LoP then said: “Between 1986 and 1989, the school drop-out rate of children between six and 14 years was 11.4% that went down to 3.2% in 1999 (when Rabri was the CM). Lalu Prasad, as the CM (1990-1997), brought 39 lakh such children to school. And what is your (Nitish’s) school drop-out rate now – 41.4% as per NITI Aayog data.”
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Referring to Lalu’s social empowerment drive, Tejashwi said his government had taken away land from 35 landlords who had land above ceiling while also carrying out “chakbandi” over three lakh hectares as part of the land reforms across the state.
“Lalu ji waived tax on drinking water and also on toddy,” he said, adding that Lalu made his mark as a “pioneer of social transformation”.
“Lalu ji had opened 260 special schools for SC/ST children. He opened six medical colleges and six universities (in undivided Bihar). People are still not going to new medical colleges, such as one in Madhepura, because there are no facilities there. He gave jobs to 1.17 lakh people…. And you ask what happened before 2005?” asked Tejashwi, adding that he would send some books highlighting Bihar’s pre-2005 achievements to the NDA leaders.
He also took a dig at Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary over his recent viral video in which he was purportedly telling the BJP leaders that they should not attack Tejashwi but Lalu in a bid to extract “maximum political mileage”.
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The LoP also cited some government figures to show how Bihar had been given the “step-motherly treatment” by the Centre. “Between 1998 and 2001, Bihar got central fund of Rs 4,047 crore as compared to Rs 9,790 crore given to Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
On his part, Nitish dismissed Tejashwi as a “bachcha (kid)” and went on to list his “accomplishments” –from “upholding law and order to improving roads to ensuring proper electricity and water supply”.
Tejashwi’s speech seemed to be part of the RJD’s new strategy to project Lalu’s legacy on the social justice and administrative fronts while focusing on building a “forward-looking narrative”. This is aimed at blunting the NDA’s “pre-2005 vs post-2005” pitch, which has been considered a “winning formula” for the ruling alliance in polls after polls.
Tejashwi’s mother Rabri, the Opposition leader in the Legislative Council, also said in the Upper House on Tuesday: “It is not at all fair to blame the RJD rule for everything. BJP needs to do a lot of fact-checking than making a sweeping remark”.
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Drawing the battle lines for the upcoming polls, Tejashwi, 35, who had been Nitish’s deputy twice, has been taking on the CM over his track record on governance and development while countering the BJP on the ideological front. He has dubbed the ailing 74-year-old Nitish as a “tired CM”, projecting himself as “the new leadership face of Bihar’s future”.