As Nitish credits terrorists for Hunkar rally, BJP doubts his mental state

NEW DELHI: An ongoing war of words between friends-turned-foes JD(U) and the BJP escalated on Monday, with the BJP raising doubts about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s mental state after he said Narendra Modi’s Hunkar rally in Patna last month had been saved by the serial blasts in the city.

Kumar, who had last June severed his party JD(U)’s ties with the BJP over its projection of Narendra Modi as their long-time alliance NDA’s prime ministerial face, on Monday said the Gujarat chief minister was an expert in “jhooth ki kheti (cultivation of falsehood)” and that his Patna rally had been saved by terrorists from becoming a flop show.



“The incidence of serial blasts at the rally in Patna was most condemnable... But terrorists in a way helped BJP, otherwise its rally at Patna was a flop in terms of size of crowd,” he told reporters in Patna.

He said had the blasts not happened, everybody would have talked about the “thin” attendance at the rally.

The comments left the BJP incensed.

“I can only say it puts a question mark over his mindset... the mental state of Kumar,” BJP spokeswoman Meenakshi Lekhi said here. Lekhi said Bihar lagged behind in several aspects and mental health institutes was one of them. “The state needs more mental institutes,” she said.

Both Modi and Kumar have been taking pot-shots at each other, calling each names in a steady worsening of the discourse between them. During a poll rally in Chhattisgarh last week, without naming Kumar, Modi had said “they were enjoying a large meal outside Patna and appeared happy.”

Kumar refuted Modi claim and accused him slipping on facts. “He has again gone wrong,” he said, denying the BJP’s accusations of security lapses at the rally and accusing it of following Hitler’s dictum of repeating a falsehood enough for it to be perceived as the truth.