Narendra Modi expert in cultivation of falsehood: Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Slamming Narendra Modi for his charge of 'criminal negligence of security' at his rally, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today dubbed his Gujarat counterpart as an "expert in cultivation of falsehood" and said terrorists in a way helped BJP in its "otherwise flop" rally.

"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 flop in terms of size of crowd," he told reporters.

"Had the blast not happened, everybody would have talked about the thin attendance at the Hoonkar rally for which BJP leaders had claimed it would be unprecedented in terms of size," Kumar said after the 'Janata Ke Darbar me Mukhya Mantri' programme.

He was reacting to Modi's barbs against him during a poll campaign in Chhattisgarh last week. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate had said that while blasts were taking place in his rally here, the 'insensitive' Bihar chief minister was 'feasting' at the JD(U) convention at Rajgir.

"He has again gone wrong. I had cancelled my scheduled programme at Munger on October 27 to attend an international yoga convention and had proceeded to Rajgir from there. It's on record, anybody can check," Kumar said without naming Modi.

Hitting out at BJP for accusing him and Bihar government for security lapses which caused blasts at the rally, he denied the charge and said by repeating it they were following Hitler's advice that if a falsehood is repeated it becomes the truth.

He accused Modi of being an expert in 'jhooth ki kheti' (cultivation of falsehood).

Taking a potshot at BJP, Kumar said, "The rally was a flop in terms of size of crowd as half the Gandhi maidan was empty."

In terms of deployment of security forces, BJP's October 27 rally had been given maximum protection among such political functions at Gandhi Maidan so far, he said.