Manoj Chaurasia in Patna
Politics, as we know, is normally about defeating the rivals
in the electoral arena but Bihar politicians are now challenging
their rivals in the wrestling arena. They say
only a complete wrestling can prove who one is really youthful, agile and
energetic, and thus, fit to rule the state.
It all began after someone from chief minister Nitish
Kumar’s JD-U called RJD chief Lalu Prasad as an “old” man too weak to run
the state, reacting to Prasad's appeal to the masses to throw out the ruling
Nitish Kumar government in course of his ongoing “Parivartan Yatra” that he is
undertaking across the state to expose failures of the ruling regime.
“People
in the JD-U are rejecting me as an old man unable to rule Bihar. What are the
parameters of deciding about one’s age? I challenge them to gird up loin and
join me at the wresting arena to be built in Gandhi Maidan. That will decide
who one is young and old”, Prasad challenged his rivals at a public function in Patna
on Saturday.
Apparently stung by the open challenge to prove their
agility in public, at least three Cabinet ministers ~ food and civil Supplies
minister Shyam Rajak, rural works minister Bhim Singh and revenue and
land reforms minister Ramai Ram have offered to join fight with the RJD
chief.
Incidentally, trio who are now ministers in the NDA government were once
close lieutenants of Prasad and two of them even served as ministers in the
15-year-long RJD government. Their switched loyalty overnight shortly after NDA
came to power.
“The RJD Lalu Prasad is an old man now but now that he has
given open challenge us, I accept it humbly. Only, he should inform me about
the date when the wrestling will take place”, remarked food and civil supplies
minister Rajak at a press conference. The RJD chief soon reacted by saying Rajak should at first face his junior colleague Ramkripal Yadav, RJD
spokesman, before joining me in the wrestling arena.
Another minister, Singh said it was not morally fair to
take him on in the wrestling since he was his “political guru” yet he would ill
fight like a mythological Bhim in the Mahabharata. “At first, I will touch the
feet of my guru before joining the fight”, said Singh. Another minister, Ram said the RJD chief could not face him in the battle.
The fight for grabbing political space in Bihar has turned
bitter in Bihar in recent months as the political rivals have got indulged in
hitting below the belt, making baseless allegations against one another.
While
the ruling regime has gone on making caricature of the RJD chief Prasad in
the media, the latter has accused the chief minister of masterminding the
killing of Barmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiyaji, the self-styled chief of Ranvir
Sena~ a private militia of upper caste landlords. “Barmeshwar Mukhiya has been
killed at the behest of Nitish Kumar”, the RJD chief alleged during his
Parivartan Yatra in Darbhanga yesterday. The chief minister is still to react
over the matter.
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