Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of today’s top 100 global thinkers, was on Tuesday likened by the state Opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal to the likes of foreign dictators Idi Amin, Hitler and Tsar Nicholas II.
In a booklet published under the name People’s chargesheet against the Nitish government, the RJD scathingly rebutted the JD(U)-BJP government’s claims of achievements in its past seven years in power and pointed at a number of areas where the government allegedly failed and erred.
Top RJD leaders including Abdul Bari Siddiqui, leader of Opposition, and party state president Ramchandra Purve dubbed Mr Kumar’s regime as the most insensitive one in Bihar’s history.
“With the rule of law only in name in Bihar today, criminals are ruling the roost and voices seeking democracy and human rights are being stifled. Corruption is rampant from the block headquarters to the state secretariat, and every government department is neck-deep in corruption,” said the 69-page RJD booklet brought out in response to the “report card” Mr Kumar presented on Saturday.
Rising crime in Bihar, the bane of the RJD’s 15-year rule before Mr Kumar assumed power in 2005, took up four of the ten sections of scrutiny in the RJD’s booklet.
There has been a rise of between 150 and 200 per cent in incidents of abduction in Bihar since Kumar became CM, alleged the RJD.
On the Lokayukta, whose formation Mr Kumar counted as a major achievement in the past year, the RJD said the Opposition’s demands for transparency were ignored and a “weak Lokayukta dependent on the government’s wishes and mercies” was put in place.
The Right to Services Act, the RJD alleged, has only led to an increase in the rate of bribes instead of abolishing it as the government claims.