While Bihar’s ruling JD(U)-BJP coalition still revels at the previous 15-year RJD regime being referred to as “jungle raj”, a BJP MP on Sunday embarrassed the Nitish Kumar-led government by openly debunking its claims of good governance and likening the current situation to “jungle raj”.
“What is the difference between ‘sushashan’ (good governance) and jungle raj? With the rampant corruption, highhandedness of the bureaucracy and rising poverty in Bihar today, I see little difference between the claimed ‘sushashan’ and jungle raj,” said Uday Singh, the two-term BJP MP from the poverty-ridden Purnea constituency in eastern Bihar at a well-attended rally.
Mr Singh, who recently conducted a survey in his constituency and found massive corruption in the implementation of welfare schemes of the Central and state governments, accused both chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP of being surrounded by sycophants and remaining aloof to the miseries of the masses.
Mounting a scathing attack on Mr Kumar’s government, Mr Singh said at his vedna rally (rally of angst) that many of the promises made by the seven-year-old government like granting possession of land to landless mahadalits and ending corruption were yet to be fulfilled. He censured the encouragement to liquor shops in villages for increasing revenue. Mr Singh asked the people to prepare a panchayat-wise whitepaper on their needs and submit them to the elected representatives.
In a sign of growing friction between the two ruling allies in Purnea district, Mr Singh targeted a local JD(U) legislator, saying she and her associates were openly seeking bribes from various welfare and infrastructure schemes.