Bihar has no governance, state budget a bundle of lies : Tejashwi in assembly

Patna, Feb 25 () RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday rubbished the budget presented by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar as a bundle of lies and charged it with having left the state with no governance.

The Leader of the Opposition made the points during the debate on the budget in the assembly, where he spoke for more than an hour and reeled out statistics to buttress his claim that economic growth under the much-maligned tenure of his parents, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, was no less impressive.

He also belittled the governments claim that the states economy has grown eight times since the NDA came to power and pointed out that economic progress between 1989- 2005, the period which saw Bihar being ruled by his father and then his mother was also eight-fold.

In this backdrop I wonder what is so spectacular about economy having grown from Rs 30,000 crore to more than Rs two lakh crore under Nitish Kumars rule which loves to blow its own trumpet, he alleged.

Peeved at NDAs repeated allegations of RJDs reign having been a jungle rule, Yadav compared the regimes narrative to a parable wherein thieves ran away with a buffalo and one of them ran to the opposite side with the bell tied around the animals neck clanging to mislead the people.

Alleging that the government was plagued by inefficiency and corruption, Yadav claimed that in the current fiscal the government is yet to utilize a major portion of the budgetary allocation.

In the bureaucratic lexicon here, there is a popular phrase March loot. Go and find out about it, remarked the former deputy chief minister suggesting that the final month of a financial year was witness to misappropriation of funds on a massive scale.

The 31-year-old spiced up his speech with a number of verses. An Urdu couplet recited by him went Mana ki mujhmein kami hai, maaf kijiye, par apna aaina bhi to saaf kijiye (I accept my shortcomings and beg your pardon for that. But please also look at your own reflection in a clear mirror).

Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who listened intently, remarked People have heard you speak with rapt attention, please do listen when the reply comes from the other side an oblique reference to the young leaders proclivity to stage walkouts whenever the government came up with its reply to a debate.

Yadav pointed to a slogan printed on a wall of the precincts of the Assembly which said the leader of the opposition was deemed to be a part of the government and insisted that he sought to make no brownie points but wanted the government to be realistic and abjure rhetoric and propaganda.

Yadav, whose party has the highest number of MLAs in the assembly, also made many tongue in cheek remarks aimed at the checkered relationship that Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) and BJP share.

Still sore over Kumar having walked out on the RJD in 2017, vowing no compromise on the three Cs of corruption, communalism and crime, Yadav said the chief ministers comments have no credibility among the people.

"His (Kumar's) deeds have reduced his party to C-grade for which they are smelling a conspiracy, he said.

The RJD leaders comment was an obvious reference to the poor show by JD(U) in assembly elections, for which the rebellion by Chirag Paswan's LJP is blamed. Many in the chief ministers party believe that LJP had BJP's tacit approval.

He also sought to tease the BJP, which has emerged numerically stonger to the JD(U) in the state election, remarking You have the upper hand in terms of the number of members in the state cabinet. But do take note, the chief minister has kept most meaty portfolios with his own party.

Turning towards a BJP minister, he said A piece of advice from me dont ever dare to put your signature against a file noting. You never know when there will be a regime change and probe agencies will come hounding you out.

He also cited a Transparency International report to claim that assertions of clean administration notwithstanding, Bihar was ranked second in the list of states with most widespread corruption.

He also alleged that the state government had been the least forthcoming in replying to RTI queries.

Referring to a speech by Kumar inside the House a couple of days ago in which he had paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Yadav said Political differences aside, my father and I have always had great respect for the deceased leader. But his NDA government had more than a dozen ministers from undivided Bihar. They failed to secure for the state its rightful due. Something my father did under Manmohan Singh.

Yadav also claimed that while RJD was in power tax revenue was 20 per cent of the states gross domestic product. Now it is 18 per cent. This despite the fact that when my parents ruled the state, tax holidays were given to poor fishermen and toddy tappers. AR NAC KK KK KK