Nitish Kumar clarifies as BJP releases an old video of him praising Narendra Modi

Reacting to the BJP releasing his 2003 speech in which he praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a leader with a future outside the state, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said the speech was made as a railway minister and should not be taken as a political speech.

"I was at a government function. It is protocol that at these events, you don't attack each other or make public complaints. A political party's agenda is not aired at a government function," Kumar told media here.

A video from 2003, in which Kumar praised Modi, was released by the BJP on Sunday hours after it was ditched, in retaliation to Kumar's allegations that it is elevating a leader who is divisive.

In the video, Nitish had said, "I hope that Narendra Modi will not confine his services to Gujarat and will soon serve the nation. The Gujarat riots were sad. But we have to move on. It's not right to focus only on one incident.

Meanwhile, the BJP denied releasing the speech and saying it was just shared again.

"We have not released the video, we had this video in the archives we just shared it. The video shows when he (Nitish Kumar) was the Railway Minister what he spoke and today how he has become secular," said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.