Modi compares 15-yr 'lawless rule' with NDA's development era

Five days ahead of the first phase of Bihar Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the state's people cannot forget the "lawlessness" seen during the 15-year rule of the opposition (Rashtriya Janata Dal).

"People of Bihar know what the situation was at that time. People were killed in broad daylight, kidnappings took place, and criminals were protected by leaders of the ruling party. Massacres happened in large numbers. People of Bihar stayed inside homes after sunset. No one can forget that," Modi said while addressing a public gathering in Shahpur in Sasaram block of Rohtas district.

"The situation changed after the change of regime in Bihar. Such lawlessness had forced people of Bihar to change the government. After the NDA came to power under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, the atmosphere of fear changed. Now, parents are not scared when their daughters step out of the house. What was the situation then? Parents virtually had their hearts in their mouths till their daughters did not return home safely," Modi said.

"Now, a new generation has come into politics of Bihar but its ideology is the same. People of Bihar will not fall for their bluff. People will give votes to the NDA.

"They (Opposition leaders) are experts in spreading aberration. People of Bihar knew how they extort lakhs of rupees for giving one government job. They are offering the same this time too to get votes. They are looking at you with tempting offer. They are luring voters of Bihar through job offers," Modi said.

"When the RJD lost the Assembly elections in Bihar in 2005, they were still part of the UPA in the Centre. They deliberately did not allow the economic packages to be sanctioned to the state from the Centre."

The Prime Minister added: "Nitish Kumar was the CM of Bihar and I was Gujarat CM when the UPA ruled at the Centre. In every CMs' meeting in Delhi, Nitish Kumar used to urge the then Manmohan Singh government for special packages for Bihar but the Congress alliance partner (RJD) would not let it sanction any package. In the last four years, we have a double engine government in Bihar and we are working together."

"The leaders on the other side (UPA) are on a destructive path to sabotage the nation. We abolished Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir last year and their leaders said they will restore it once they came to power," Modi said.

"Bihar is a place which produces brave soldiers. They were martyred while fighting in Galwan Valley. They were also martyred in the Pulwama attack. I want to pay respects and homage to them and their family," Modi said.

"Our double engine government is working on every aspect to develop Bihar through road infrastructure, power supply, irrigation connectivity to every agricultural land, construction of large number of bridges on the rivers. I want to point out that the construction of four-lane bridge is in the last phase at Koilwar in Bhojpur district, a bridge is also coming on the river Son to connect Bihar with Jharkhand. Construction of new roads, widening of roads from two lanes to four lanes are being done on a large-scale power plant in Chausa in Buxar district at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore is also coming up," Modi added.

"Such infrastructure will help create a new food park as areas surrounding Rohtas, Kaimur and Bhojpur are known as 'Dhan Ka Katora'," Modi said.

Modi said that he had decided to conduct one common entrance examination in the country for different jobs. "Besides, we will soon implement 'education in mother tongue', including in higher education fields like medical and engineering," he said.

He claimed that the opposition were against new agricultural laws to save middlemen. "The farmers will directly sell their produce to anyone and anywhere. I want to assure you that the new laws will help the farmers," he said.

Modi started his one-hour speec in Bhojpuri and paid homage to Bihar's leaders Ram Vilas Paswan and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who died recently.

He also said that people from Scheduled Castes and Tribes as well as Backward Classes were getting the benefit of reservation. Besides, 10 per cent reservation was also given to the economically weaker sections among the upper castes, he added.

Earlier, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said: "We have connected every village with roads in the state. With the help of the Centre, free LPG was given to 85 lakh poor during coronavirus pandemic. We arranged trains to bring back our migrant labourers. Two Covid hospitals are coming up in Bihta in Patna district and Patahi in Muzaffarpur district," Kumar said.

"When we came to power, electricity consumption in Bihar was 700 megawatt but now it's 6,000 megawatt. In 2005, the Bihar budget was Rs 24,000 crore but Rs 2.11 lakh crore now. We believe in development and it will continue if you vote for the NDA in this election," Kumar said.