Bihar CM who was in the Mumbai for a book launch also said Biharis are not a burden on Maharashtra.
A “polarising” figure like BJP’s Hindutva poster boy Narendra Modi cannot succeed in a complex and diverse country like India. This is what Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who split from the NDA over Modi being projected for the prime minister’s post, hinted while speaking at a city hotel on Saturday.
“There are attempts to create a wave, but this cannot be sustained for long. This is a huge country with different types of people. They must all be united for the country to be taken forward,” said Kumar, without naming Modi or the BJP, stressing that the country needed those who could take others along and not ones who were divisive. “You know the conditions in the country,” said Kumar, adding that he had to break away from the BJP, despite lack of competition to him (from Modi). “I decided that there would be no compromise with principles and this was a compromise with principles. Hence, I took this decision,” said Kumar.
He was speaking at the launch of a book in Marathi on former union minister and socialist George Fernandes, co-edited by Ranga Rachure and professor Jaideo Dole.
Fernandes cut his political teeth in Mumbai as a labour union leader and corporator and later emerged as a giant killer of sorts, trouncing Congress veteran Sadashiv Kanhoba (Sa Ka) Patil in the 1967 Lok Sabha polls. Fernandes later shifted base to Bihar.
Kumar, who also attended Bihar’s Industrial Investment Advisory Council meeting before the book release, also took a swipe at the Raj Thackeray- led MNS which had opposed his last year’s rally in Mumbai for the Bihar din celebrations.
“Biharis are never a burden. They never beg, they eat the hard-earned fruit of their labour. They never become a burden, they always bear the burden,” he added.
Kumar also called on Mumbai’s old-time socialists to become politically active again. Rachure, an activist of Yuvak Kranti Dal, and former state president of Janata Dal (United), spoke about how Fernandes retained his commoners touch unlike the new breed of politicians, who prefer depending on “paid activists” during elections. Fernandes’ close aide Ranjit Bhanu too spoke about him.
Talking unity
Bihar chief minister who was in the city for a book launch said that a “polarising” figure like BJP’s Hindutva poster boy Narendra Modi cannot succeed in a complex and diverse country like India
He also took a swipe at the Raj Thackeray-led MNS which had opposed his rally in Mumbai last year. “Biharis are never a burden. They never beg, they eat the hard-earned fruit of their labour,” said Kumar
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