Does country need a leader or an event manager: Nitish Kumar on Narendra Modi

PATNA: Taking a cue from veteran BJP leader L K Advani's comment on Narendra Modi that he is a good event manager, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today wondered if the country needed a leader or an event manager.

"Recently, I saw that Advani said about Narendra Modi that he is a good event manager. Does the country need a leader or an event manager?" he told reporters.

Kumar said this when he was asked that Advani has praised BJP manifesto which has imprint of its Prime Ministerial candidate and does this reflect his change of heart?

Kumar's good rapport with the BJP patriarch is wellknown. He decided to end ties with BJP after it chose to elevate his arch rival Narendra Modi in place of Advani, say political observers.

Even after the end of the alliance between BJP and JD(U), Kumar had met the BJP veteran warmly at a meeting of the National Development Council at Delhi recently which was prominently captured by cameras.

More recently in the wake of the controversy over Advani being alloted the Gandhinagar seat instead of Bhopal, Kumar had said the veteran leader had been "caged" in Gandhinagar.
Addressing mediapersons at JD(U) headquarters, Kumar said BJP delaying the release of its manifesto proved that it is gripped with "policy paralysis."

He said while BJP leaders had been stressing that they would control price rise, the manifesto is "ambiguously silent" about concrete steps to achieve it.

"There is no mention of cracking on hoarders and black marketeers," he said picking holes in the manifesto.

The Bihar CM asked whether the BJP would favour open market policy to check prices of petroleum products or practise administrative policing policy.

"There is a silence over the price of natural gas as whether BJP is in favour of 4.20 dollar per mbtu (British thermal units) price or 8.40 dollar per mtu price?" he asked.

Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal had also propped this question to BJP.

He said there is no reference to any solid programme for women empowerment or for welfare of tribals.

"Is BJP planning to replicate the Gujarat model across the country where number of tribals dependent on agriculture has increased from 81 per cent to 85 per cent and drop out rate among tribal children in schools is as high as 78 per cent?" he asked.

The entire focus of the BJP manifesto is on triggering "communal polarisation" by harping on Ram Temple issue and protection of cattle and welfare of community involved in rearing of animals, Kumar said.

The Bihar CM lashed out at BJP for ignoring problems of the state.

It though talks of dealing with flood problem in Assam, but has no words for the same in Bihar two-third of whose population face perennial problem on this count.

"Will they take up the annual occurrence of flood in North Bihar with Nepal or not?" he asked.

Kumar criticised BJP for inviting foreign investment in defence by promoting private participation in sensitive subject of defence.

"Its a dangerous game which will transform India into a battlefield," he said.