US magazine's praise for Nitish a publicity stunt: Lalu Prasad

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Wednesday termed as "publicity" stunt the listing of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by a US magazine among top 100 global thinkers.

"Such things are nothing but publicity materials far from truth which keep coming often," he told reporters here in his reaction to the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine naming Kumar among its top 100 global thinkers.

Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader of Myanmar, tops the list and the country's president Thein Sein, author Salman Rushdie and Malala Yousufzai, the rights activist of Pakistan who was attacked by the Taliban, are others mentioned in it.

Kumar's name figures at the 77th spot for "turning around India's poorest state" through an array of innovative programmes to address crime, corruption and lack of development. The list also features India's chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan and writer Pankaj Mishra.

Elaborating, Prasad said an American magazine had recently described Patna as among the best cities of the world, but the stampede during Chhath under Nitish Kumar's rule claimed 17 lives and sullied the city's name.

On allegations of irregularities in implementation of MGNREGA in Bihar, which is being probed on an order by the Rural Development department, the RJD chief said it proved his party's allegations of large-scale corruption.

He demanded a CBI inquiry into reports of irregularities in MGNREGA scheme in some districts and said he would hit the streets again from December one as part of his "Parivartan yatra" against NDA government in the state.