Tejashwi Yadav (right) called out Nitish Kumar for the attack on father Lalu Yadav.
Patna:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cutting barb at his arch-rival Lalu Yadav during the recently held assembly elections prompted a sharp response from the latter’s son Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of the Opposition, in the state assembly on Friday.
Tejashwi Yadav called out the speech made by the Janata Dal (United) chief in which he had referred the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo’s large family, without mentioning them by name, and suggested it showed Lalu Yadav’s preference of having male children.
“I hope the chief minister is aware that the youngest child of my parents was a girl, born after two sons,” said Tejashwi Yadav, whose elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav is also a member of the state assembly and younger sister Rajlaxmi Yadav is married in the family of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
“Now let us come to the fact that the chief minister has only one son. Could we apply his own yardsticks and say that he did not have another out of fear that it could be a girl?” Mr Yadav said.
The 32-year-old RJD leader, who was taking part in the debate on the governor’s address to the newly constituted assembly, expressed dismay that while he focused on “people’s issues” during the elections, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) resorted to personal attacks.
“I was speaking about jobs. And I bow before the people of Bihar who voted for us and helped us emerge as the single largest party. If not for manipulations by pliant officials posted in places where results of tightly contested elections were overturned, we might have got the chance to fulfil our promises,” Mr Yadav alleged.
“But my opponents had other priorities. A person no less than the Prime Minister indulged in name-calling,” said Mr Yadav, referring to the rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he used the expression “jungle raj ke yuvraaj” to target the RJD leader.
“I do not like to make snide remarks against my elders. This goes against the values I have been brought up with. I have always addressed the honourable Chief Minister, even in speeches uttered in the public, as chacha (uncle),” said Mr Yadav.
“But my point is, does it behove a chief minister to make such utterance,” he asked with a rhetorical flourish to which Nitish Kumar responded with an indulgent laugh.
Last month, Nitish Kumar had taken no names in his taunt at the Yadav family about “having eight to nine children in the quest for a son” at an election rally.
Tejashwi Yadav, the eighth of former chief ministers Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi’s nine children, tweeted that even Nitish Kumar’s insults were “blessings” for him. Later, he told reporters that the Chief Minister had insulted “women and my mother’s sentiments”.
Nitish Kumar was unusually caustic and, according to his critics, downright personal in his campaign against Tejashwi Yadav for the elections that brought him back to power earlier this month but cut down his party’s seats drastically.
(With inputs from PTI)
