by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Patna : RJD chief Lalu Prasad has termed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a “fake socialist” who has joined hands with communal forces and is afraid of them.
His comment comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit here on Saturday to attend the centenary celebrations of Patna University.
“He is a fake socialist. Real socialist neither joins hands with communal forces nor is afraid of them,” Lalu Prasad tweeted.
He added “Ye asal mein Godse aur Hitler ka bada wala pujari hai (He is actually a big follower of Godse and Hitler).”
In the last week of July, Nitish Kumar had dumped the RJD and Congress to join hands with BJP and form the government. In August his party JD-U formally joined the BJP-led NDA.
Lalu Prasad has earlier called Nitish Kumar the Paltu Ram of politics for breaking the Grand Alliance and forming a new government with the BJP.
Nitish Kumar had in 2013 dumped the BJP and joined hands with the RJD and Congress.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Tuesday issued fresh summons to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav in the ongoing probe into alleged irregularities in an IRCTC hotels’ contract case.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned both for questioning on Thursday and Friday,” agency spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told IANS.
The CBI’s latest move comes after Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi skipped three earlier summons.
On September 26, summons were issued to the father and son for October 3 and 4.
Earlier, the agency had summoned them on September 22 to appear before it on 25 and 26 respectively. But, they sought two weeks’ time.
The CBI had summoned the former Bihar Chief Minister and son Tejashwi, who is a former Deputy Chief Minister, on September 7 as well for questioning on September 11 and 12.
The CBI had, on July 5, filed a corruption case against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav for alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels at Ranchi and Puri in 2006 to a private company when Lalu Prasad was the Railway Minister from 2004 to 2009.
The contracts were allegedly handed over to Sujata Hotels company owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar in lieu of a bribe in the form of a plot of prime land in Bihar, the CBI said.
According to the CBI, Lalu Prasad allegedly granted illegal favours to Sujata Hotels.
The CBI, which registered the case under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act, claimed that the kickbacks were paid through a ‘benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta, wife of RJD MP Prem Chand Gupta.
The CBI preliminary inquiry allegedly found that the said land was sold by the Kochhars to Delight Marketing, and payment was arranged through Ahluwalia Contractors and its promoter Bikramjeet Singh Ahluwalia.
The Enforcement Directorate, which is also probing the financial irregularities in the case, has questioned Ahluwalia and also summoned Sujata Hotels owners for questioning.
The ED had, on July 27, registered a separate case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act following the CBI FIR and was probing allegations against Lalu Prasad and others for alleged transaction of money through shell companies.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
The Bihar assembly election will determine the future of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says the cricketer-turned-politician son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad.
Tejaswi Yadav, 26, who once played with Indian Test cricket captain Virat Kohli, is confident that the Grand Alliance of the RJD, the Janata Dal-United and the Congress will win the October-November polls.
The importance of the five-phase election cannot be confined to Bihar, said the school dropout from Delhi who is contesting the election along with his elder brother Tej Pratap, both widely seen as Lalu Prasad’s successors in the RJD.
“The election will decide the fate of the country. Modi’s future will also be decided by the Bihar election result,” the younger Yadav, clad in a light colour cotton kurta pyjama, told IANS at the sprawling official residence of his parents.
“It will determine the policies and decisions of the government of India on land acquisition and reservation (of jobs and in education) for Dalits and OBCs.”
Tejaswi, as he is widely known, is contesting his first election. At home with both Hindi and English, he launched a bitter attack on Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s main face in the Bihar battle.
“The BJP has double standards and a double face,” he said.
“In his Lok Sabha election campaign, Modi promised two crore (20 million) jobs to youths every year, return of black money from abroad, Rs.15 lakh to each person from that black money, and control of price rise, and an end to corruption.
“Nothing has happened… Go and ask anyone from villages and towns, people will echo what I say.”
Tejaswi is contesting from the rural assembly constituency of Raghopur, a family fiefdom.
“We have been fighting for the poorest of the poor, the backwards and for social justice,” he said, explaining his father’s and the RJD’s ideology of social justice.
The RJD leader denied charges that a victory for the JD-U and RJD would mean a return of ‘jungle raj’ in Bihar.
“Our rivals call us ‘jativad’ (casteist) as if we created caste. All of us know who has created caste and for what.
“Laluji only tried to give power to castes that were denied a share in development.”
Like religion, caste was a hard reality, he said. “Most people have been guided by it from birth to death.
“If we are ‘jativadi’ because we talk about those who are yet to taste the fruits of development, then, yes, we are ‘jativadi’.”
Tejaswi accused the BJP and Modi of defaming Bihar.
“Bihar was defamed in the name of ‘jungle raj’ by vested interests because the son of poor parents (Lalu Prasad) reached the top in politics and tried to empower the poor.
“What about Gujarat when over 1,000 people were killed in broad daylight over a month in 2002? When houses, shops and businesses of one community were targeted? Was that ‘mangal raj’?
Even today, he argued, the crime figure of BJP-ruled Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra is far worse than Bihar’s.
Tejaswi pointed out how periodically Pakistani flags were raised in Jammu and Kashmir, which is ruled by an alliance of the Peoples Democratic Party and the BJP.
“Is that not a good example of ‘jungle raj’?
“Bihar has been defamed and given a bad name due to the campaign of the BJP.
“The BJP is to blame for lack of industries in Bihar. Its propaganda about so-called lawlessness has created an image of Bihar which is not the reality and discouraged private investors,” the RJD leader added.
(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)
