New Delhi, (IANS): The Congress on Thursday hit out at JD-U chief Nitish Kumar for dumping the Grand Alliance and aligning with the BJP to form government in Bihar and termed it as a “black day” for democracy and disregard of people’s mandate.
The party, which was part of Bihar’s ruling Grand Alliance along with the Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal, said the new BJP-JD-U government in Bihar is founded upon “political conspiracy” rather than people’s mandate.
“A story of ‘rank opportunism and treachery with people’s mandate’ was written in Bihar today (Thursday) by BJP and Nitish Kumar. Truth is that ‘hunger for power has overpowered’ everything else,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep singh Surjewala.
“The mask of big talks and self-professed honesty stands exposed with the sole principle being ‘power at any cost, power at all costs'”, he said, referring to Nitish Kumar, who quit the Grand Alliance over corruption charges against RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, and immediately aligned with the BJP.
“On July 27, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rally in Muzaffarpur questioned the ‘political DNA’ of Nitish Kumar. It has been proved today that the political DNA of BJP and JD-U is identical – opportunism, treachery, hunger for power and disregard of people’s mandate,” he added.
He said that in November 2015, the people of Bihar rejected the leadership of Narendra Modi and also the policies of BJP in the Assembly election, which the Grand Alliance won.
“Mandate of people of Bihar was in favour of policies, principles and leadership of Mahagathbandhan. The JD-U led by Nitish Kumar won the least percentage of seats contested by RJD, JD-U and the Congress.
“Despite this, three parties of the Mahagathbandhan unanimously elected Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister with the good wishes of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi,” said Surjewala.
Surjewala said it is a double whammy for democracy that within 20 months Nitish Kumar chose to dump the alliance.
“Politics of ‘Aaya Ram – Gaya Ram’ and ‘opportunism’ was repeated when a party (BJP) rejected by people and a leader (Nitish Kumar) hungry for power at any cost, formed a government overnight.
“Nitish Kumar and JD-U were never given the mandate to rule Bihar alone by the people and BJP was decisively rejected. The new BJP-JD-U government is founded upon political conspiracy rather than people’s mandate and has no right to continue even for a day as it is an affront to the mandate given by people of Bihar,” he said.
He said that to decimate democracy and denigrate people’s mandate has become the accepted ‘way forward’ for the BJP at the Centre.
“First, people’s will was brutally rejected by BJP in Goa and a party (BJP) defeated by people of Goa forcibly formed the government. This derogation of democracy was repeated in Manipur when BJP (which was in minority) constituted a government by upsetting majority numbers through rank defections,” he said.
“In Bihar, every political and democratic principle was murdered in broad daylight and a government of BJP-JD-U has been formed today, which neither has the people’s mandate nor the authority to rule.
“This is a black day for India’s democracy. Indian National Congress is committed to protect and carry on the fight for protecting democratic principles in face of these brutal onslaughts by fascist forces,” he added.