Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 13: With a Delhi court set a legal trial ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections by framing charges against the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders including the Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, the ruling BJP on Monday launched a scathing attack on the principle constituent of the opposition “Mahagathbandhan” asking the voters of Bihar not to take RJD leader’s promises seriously.
The BJP attack came after a Delhi court framed charges against the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former railway minister, his wife Rabri Devi and son and the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav in the alleged IRCTC scam case.
At a press conference, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad urged the people of Bihar “never to be taken in by Tejashwi Yadav’s promises, because jobs will not be provided and your land will be taken.” “Mr Tejashwi — who in the run-up to the State Assembly polls has promised to change Bihar — had himself been accused of fraud. When someone has such a reputation and such charges, how can he change Bihar?” he asked.
Special Judge Vishal Gogne framed common charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating against the trio in the case which stems from alleged irregularities in the grant of operational contracts of two Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels to a private firm. The court also framed charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr Prasad, the RJD chief, setting the stage for a trial ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar.
Tejashwi Yadav called the framing of charges just when the Assembly election dates were announced as a “political vendetta” and termed the coming elections a fight between “Biharis and non-Biharis,” and said his family had chosen the path of struggle and the case was another example of “political vendetta.”
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged that Mr Lalu Prasad, during his tenure as Railway Minister, extended favour to hotel owners by leasing two railway hotels. In lieu of the alleged favour, a prime land in Patna was sold to a company controlled by his close associate. The company, along with the land, was later taken over by his family at a throwaway price, the Central agency claimed.
Stating that Mr Lalu Prasad and his family members were facing allegations in multiple cases, the Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad said the CBI charge-sheet exposed their “massive plunder.” “If Lalu Prasad’s entire tenure were to be summarised in three sentences, they would be: consuming fodder, drinking coal-tar, and manipulating government property and tenders to grab land. A fourth model should also be included: “Jameen Do, Naukri Lo (Give Land, Take Job)…the most striking feature of this model has been that all its benefits were confined solely to the family, with no one outside receiving anything,” he said.
The BJP leader said most victims of the ‘Give Land, Take Job’ scheme were the poor whose land parcels were taken in exchange for jobs. “This is the so-called social justice of the Congress and the RJD, where the rights of the poor were violated, and corruption and nepotism were promoted in their name,” he said.
Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad said the RJD supremo had already been convicted in the “fodder scam” and the trial in one “coal-tar scam” was ongoing. Citing Mr Tejashwi’s affidavit from the 2020 State Assembly polls, he alleged that between 1993 and 2007 he possessed nine agricultural lands… Where did these nine plots come from? Tejashwi Yadav was born in 1990,” he said.
Alleging that Ms Rabri Devi owned three agricultural plots and four non-agricultural plots, one commercial property, and five residential properties, he also asked about her sources of income.
Mr Tejashwi Yadav in a post on X said, “A month ago, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah ji came to Bihar, he was threatening us that he wouldn’t leave us in a condition to contest elections. I will fight and I will win. We are Biharis, true Biharis… We do not fear outsiders. Jai Bihar, Jai Bihari,” he said.
He also spoke to reporters after the court hearing, where he said, “As long as the BJP, which is anti-constitutional, is in power and I am alive, we will continue to fight against it. There’s a special thrill in battling storms. We have chosen the path of struggle. By walking on the path of struggle, we will surely reach our destination.”
