Our Patna Bureau /
PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has come down heavily on Prime minister Narendra Modi for his ‘DNA’ remarks against him. He said that Prime Minister had insulted the people of Bihar by calling his DNA bad.
“I am a Bihari and Modi has insulted and humiliated all Biharis by questioning my DNA and using such a language,” Nitish Kumar said.
Addressing a public meeting in Muzaffarpur on Saturday Modi said: “There seems to be some problem in his DNA because the DNA of democracy is not like that. In democracy, you give respect even to your political rivals.”
Nitish Kumar said he failed to understand how a prime minister, which is a top constitutional post, can use such language against a chief minister like him.
“It has exposed that standards have deteriorated to such an extent,” he said.
Nitish Kumar said earlier senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said casteism was in the DNA of Bihar.
“I would like to point out to BJP leaders that they have no knowledge of Bihar’s DNA. They should study Bihar’s DNA, which has a long history,” Nitish Kumar told journalists.
” Now I leave it to the people of Bihar to decide on how they would answer someone who says their DNA is bad,” said Nitish.
Nitish Kumar also accused PM of not honouring promises made for development of Bihar. Chief Minister hit back with a point-by point rebuttal during a press meet in the course of which he twice played out old clippings of his speeches to counter the Prime Minister’s assertions.
Kumar also asked what happened to Modi’s promise last year to give special status, special attention and special package to Bihar. “People in Bihar are waiting,” he said. While the Prime Minister today stated that he had earlier spoken about Rs 50,000 crore package for Bihar, Kumar played a video footage of a speech in which Modi had spoken about special package for Bihar without specifying the amount.
Scoffing at the Prime Minister’s remark that key ministries at the Centre were being headed by Bihar leaders, Kumar said under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Defence, External Affairs and Railways were with leaders from Bihar.”So, what is he (PM) talking about. On Modi’s remark that he Kuamr had betrayed his mentor George Fernandes, Kumar hit back asking about the present status of BJP veterans like L K Advani, M M Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and C P Thakur. “Where are they today? he asked.