In response to the Nitish government’s 10-year report card released on July 27, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday brought out its own, accusing Mr. Kumar’s government of “derailing development” in the State in the last 25 months. The BJP also contested the claim of a consistent growth rate.
“Ever since the BJP parted ways with Nitish Kumar’s government, the development in the State has derailed and the image of Bihar has been sullied. The crime graph has gone up to such an extent that it has even left behind the crime figures prevailing during RJD’s jungle raj,” charged senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
While releasing the report card captioned “saat saal mein badhi raftar, dhai saal mein bantadhar (pace of development took place in seven years, it all collapsed in two-and-half years), Mr. Modi said that during the seven years when the BJP was part of the government, the pace of development was brisk. Once it was ousted, everything collapsed.
“Even the State’s growth rate has remained half of what it was during the NDA government. When we were part of the government, in 2012-13, Bihar’s GDP was 15.5 per cent. It has now come down to just 8 per cent,” charged Mr. Modi.
While releasing his government’s report card, Mr. Nitish Kumar had said that Bihar’s growth rate had reached 18 per cent and was 10 per cent on average during the last 10 years of his regime.
Mr. Sushil Kumar Modi charged that the incidents of rape, abduction and murder had increased manifold in the last two years. No new schemes were launched and some old schemes had been stopped.
The BJP report card has a caricature of Mr. Kumar and his alliance partners Lalu Prasad of the RJD and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi hanging on each other’s shoulders with captions “ahankar, apradh and bhrastachar (inflated ego, crime and corruption).
Earlier, hours after the release of the government’s report card, former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi too had released a report card on his nine-month rule, highlighting its achievements while taking a dig at the present government.
Meanwhile, the ruling JD(U), the Congress and the RJD called the BJP report card a “bundle of lies.” “It holds no value as it contains false and fabricated figures,” Neeraj Kumar, JD(U) leader and spokesperson told The Hindu .
