BJP attacks Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Rahul Gandhi on criticism of Bihar package

PATNA: The BJP today attacked opposition parties over their comments on the Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the state, accusing them of being "unhappy" with it and maintaining "double standards" in their criticism.

"All people of Bihar are happy about the special package, only three persons, Nitish Kumar, RJD president Lalu Prasad and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are unhappy about it. They should first tell what they have done for the state," Union Communications Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

Accusing the three leaders of indulging in negative politics, he said everybody knows what Lalu Prasad has done for the development of Bihar as "his mention revives memories of the fodder scam".

"Rahul Gandhi will speak about special package, but will keep silent on huge scams like 2G and Coalgate, which happened during the UPA regime. Nitish Kumar stands with these two and criticises the package without any basis," he said.

Prasad questioned why Kumar was unhappy and said he should have either "praised the special package or pointed out defects in it," instead of indulging in baseless criticism.

"Kumar publicised that no budgetary provisions have been made for the package. This is completely wrong. He doesn't know that the package was announced by the PM after due approval of the Finance Ministry," he said.

Prasad said Kumar failed to understand that the projects under the special package would continue till their completion, while the Union budget was just for one year. (More) PTI DR DKB IKA 08192039 NNNN