JD(U) General Secretary Shivanand Tiwari hits out at Narendra Modi

PATNA: JD(U) General Secretary Shivanand Tiwari today hit out at Narendra Modi for malnutrition among children in Gujarat as highlighted in a CAG report and said he was against the BJP leader's espousal of corporate-style development.

"Coming from an impoverished background Modi is expected to a be spokesman of the poor and downtrodden in Gujarat and not a face of the corporates...He should have improved the condition of the poor," he told newsmen here.

The JD(U) spokesman, however, said he was not opposed to Modi as a person but to his political ideology and his espousing corporate-style development.

He also lambasted Modi for defending scavenging on the ground that the people were engaged in disposal of excreta out of conviction and not due to lack of better life. "No well meaning person will do so for livelihood if he has a choice," he said.

Referring to demands for his and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's prosecution in the multi-crore rupees fodder scam, he hit out at state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi for allegedly indulging in falsehoods. "Modi is a professional liar and unprincipled person ... He is indulging in falsehood by making baseless allegations against me and the chief minister that we had taken money from a fodder case accused," he said.

"I am hearing about the bribe charge against me and Kumar ever since the fodder scam was unravelled in mid 1990s...I had myself demanded a CBI probe into the charge as we wanted to come out clean," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Alleging that JD(U)'s political adversaries had been trying to drag him and Kumar into the scam for a long time, he said the Ranchi CBI court which convicted RJD chief Lalu Prasad and others had rejected a petition against them.

"The same petitioner has moved Ranchi High Court seeking a CBI probe against us in the fodder scam case and the court has directed the central agency to file its affidavit on November 22," he said.

Under these circumstances Sushil Kumar Modi was trying to politicise the matter, Tiwari said and lashed out at him for allegedly dragging his son's name in corruption charges to settle "political scores" with him.