NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The union fisheries minister and Bihar senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh, who has the habit of making controversial statements and get out of it uncensored, is at it again.
At a public gathering in his constituency Begusarai, Singh on Sunday advised people to “beat up” government officials if they don’t listen to them. “Aise adhikariyon ka pitai karo. Dono hathse lakdi pakad ke aise adhikariyon ke sarpe de maro,” was what Singh told the people to do. Amidst huge clapping from the audience, Singh said if even such action did not yield results, he would through his weight around with the people.
Singh’s comment led to a wave of reactions within the state’s political spectrum. Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar reacting to it made his displeasure known but refused to make any direct comment.
“Aap unhi se puchiye (go and ask him only),” Kumar said after reporters asked what he had to say about the Union minister’s remark. Kumar further questioned whether it was justified or appropriate to use words like ‘pitai’ (beating) and then refused to speak on this matter. The JD(U) is a junior partner of the BJP in the NDA government in Bihar.
Apart from Kumar, opposition parties in Bihar such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) strongly condemned Singh’s remark. The BSP’s national spokesperson, Sudhindra Bhadoria, said such a statement might create a law and order problem and demanded the central government to take action against him.
The RJD hit out at Singh as well as the chief minister and asked whether these two parties were running a government or a ‘Mahajungleraj’ in the state. “On one hand, @NitishKumar tells youth that they would be jailed and not be given employment if they question the government or its officials. While on the other, eccentric Giriraj Singh says that government officials should be beaten up with sticks. Is this a government or a Mahajungleraj,” the RJD’s tweeted in Hindi.
A BJP leader in Patna, however, while defending Singh said he being a mass leader need to be responsive to the public anger. “Singh’s statement should be taken figuratively and not in a literal sense. Giriraj Singh is a mass leader who has to be responsive towards public anger,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
