In an apparent attempt to give its support base among the Muslims an easy boost, Bihar’s ruling JD(U) on Thursday lapped up Ishrat Jahan’s newly revealed Bihar roots to attack its former ally BJP, which retaliated sharply by accusing the regional party of mindless vote-bank politics.
After it was known that the family of Ishrat Jahan, the Maharashtra teenager gunned down in Ahmedabad, originally hailed from Khagaul in Patna, several JD(U) leaders described her as “a daughter of Bihar” who was innocent.
The JD(U), which had all along maintained a pro-BJP silence on this case when the party was the BJP’s ally till last month, suddenly became vocal in seeking to paint the saffron party and its Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government in communal colours.
“Ishrat Jahan was a daughter of Bihar and she was killed in Gujarat. What crime had she committed? Why are BJP leaders in Bihar silent over her murder?” asked JD(U) state spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar.
“We in Bihar plant a tree and celebrate when a girl child is born, but one of our daughters was murdered in cold blood. It is shameful for BJP-ruled Gujarat,” he added.