Kejriwal and Nitish bonhomie: Term Modi govt as 'anti-poor' and 'anti-farmer'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumr on Thursday jointly attacked the Centre calling it "anti-poor and anti-farmer" and asserted that the people will give it a "befitting reply". Participating in a discussion 'How to empower citizens through efficient public service system' organised to mark the implementation of Right to Public Service with Nitish Kumar, Kejriwal tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

"The Central government is anti-poor and anti-farmer. It talks about cooperative federalism, but does just opposite. It declared null and void our decision to enhance per acre acquisition compensation to farmers in Delhi from Rs 57 lakh to Rs 3.5 crore. Actually it is a null-and void government working at the Centre," Kejriwal said.

"The DNA of Bihar has been questioned despite the fact that the entire history of our country is full of great persons from this state. They (BJP) had done the same mistake before Delhi polls when I was called a naxal and my 'gotra' (lineage) was said to be of an 'upadravi' (anarchist). The people told it that they would not remain silent." Kejriwal was referring to Modi's attack on Kumar at a political rally at Muzaffarpur.

The Delhi CM also slammed the prime minister over the way he had announced Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package for Bihar at a recent function at Ara.

"It seemed as if he was auctioning Bihar by asking how much package should be given, whether Rs 60,000 crore or Rs 70,000 crore. It was an effort to buy the people of Bihar. The people of this state cannot be bought so cheap. They will not remain silent and give a befitting reply for this," he added.

Kejriwal said there were two models of governance in the country. The one at the Centre wants to take away land from farmers and the people were disenchanted with it. The other is the Delhi government which works for the people and not merely for the rich and corporate houses.

The Delhi Chief Minister spoke of his government's achievements in bringing down electricity bills of people in Delhi by providing subsidy of Rs 1,200 crore and providing 20,000 litres of free water to every family each month.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said "Delhi will get full statehood and Bihar will get special category status if people of both states unite. There are difficulties on the way, but we will have to face them."

Modi, he said, had declared one per cent of the GDP as special package for Bihar but there was no buzz about it in the Union Finance ministry.

"This is a thing to worry about. I have spoken about it not being a package, but just repackaging. In any case I will divulge further details later as this is not the correct forum to do so," Kumar said.

Kejriwal said when BJP came to power at the Centre with a huge mandate people had very high expectations from it.

"But things have come to naught. They talked about bringing back black money but not even a 'chavanni' (25 paise coin) came. My friends and former colleagues in income tax department say no work is going on this front. I agree it will take time to bring corruption money back, but at least some efforts should be there," he said.

Poking fun at the Modi government, Kejriwal said it talked about black money before polls but started making people do yoga afterwards.

"It talked about bringing down inflation, but started the Swachch Bharat campaign and spent Rs 100 crore on its publicity. Yoga is good for health, but public should decide what it wants to do. Show me a single lane in the country which is completely neat and clean. All the tall talk by BJP is just for show," he said.

Kejriwal claimed that efforts had been taken to curb corruption through raids conducted by Delhi ACB and bribery had come down in government offices by 60 to 70 per cent, but instead of encouraging the Centre had sent an officer of its own choice to head it

Kejriwal said Aam Aadmi Party MLA Surendra, a former commando was arrested by Delhi Police which is under the Centre's control. "He was arrested on frivolous grounds to settle political vendetta.

"These are nothing but pure gundagardi (bullying by muscle power)."

Kumar pitched for cooperation by Delhi and Bihar governments and supporting each other to get their demands on full statehood and special category status respectively fulfilled. The Bihar chief minister said there should be accountability in governance along with transparency to strengthen democracy. "I have always fulfilled whatever I have said and have never been proved to be a liar."

"We can leave China behind if we strengthen democracy. But for this we need to check corruption in our country," he added.