Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the RJD and the Congress of insulting the Chhath festival, apparently trying to play on Hindu religious sentiments in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly elections.
Modi’s salvo came a day after Rahul Gandhi had mocked him, accusing him of creating a “drama” over Chhath and setting up a proxy Yamuna to perform the rituals. Rahul also alleged the Prime Minister would be ready to “dance on the stage” to win votes.
Addressing an election rally in Muzaffarpur, Modi underscored his personal reverence for Chhath — the principal Hindu festival in Bihar — before alluding indirectly to Rahul’s comments and launching into an offensive against the RJD-Congress alliance.
“Our government is working to secure Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage status for the Chhath Mahaparva. I even listen to Chhath songs while travelling,” Modi said.
He added as an aside that he had once been deeply moved by a Chhath song sung by a girl from Nagaland.
“But while this son of yours is trying to ensure that Chhath receives its due honour, the Congress and the RJD are mocking the festival, calling it ‘drama’ and ‘nautanki’,” he told the crowd.
Modi said: “The Congress and the RJD are insulting Chhathi Maiyya. Tell me, can anyone insult Chhathi Maiyya for votes? Will mothers who fast on Chhath tolerate it?
“How shameless are the RJD and the Congress? For them, Chhath Puja is a ‘drama’ and a ‘nautanki’. Will you punish such people or not?”
Modi also spoke on the BJP’s central campaign theme — that of a “Jungle Raj” during RJD rule in Bihar (1990-2005).
“What have the RJD and the Congress done? What did the people of Jungle Raj do? There are five words that define them — katta (country-made guns), kroorta (cruelty), katuta (bitterness), kushasan (misgovernance) and corruption,” he said.
Later, at a rally in Chhapra, Modi alleged that the RJD-Congress had released not a manifesto but a “rate list” — an allusion to the land-for-jobs charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav, the Opposition’s pick for chief minister.
“The leaders of the Jungle Raj are again trying to mislead you. They haven’t released an election manifesto — they have released a rate list. Their real motive is extortion, ransom, loot, and corruption,” the Prime Minister said.
Modi invoked the alleged rape of a Dalit IAS officer’s wife by RJD goons in 1998, when the RJD was in power.
“Friends, I want to remind you how those with the lantern (the RJD election symbol) and the hand (the Congress symbol) have insulted Bihar,” he said.
“What happened in 1998 would make today’s youth shudder. The officer’s wife wrote to the governor revealing that RJD goons had raped her for several days.... Even the chief minister’s residence had turned into a den of the mafia.”
Modi and other BJP leaders have been steadfastly highlighting past incidents of crime to portray RJD rule as a period of lawlessness and frighten the younger voters who have no memory of the 1990s.
BJP strategists believe that invoking that era is key to countering the promise of jobs made by Tejashwi.
“This election is not about making someone an MLA, minister or chief minister,” Union home minister Amit Shah said in Munger.
“This election will decide whether Bihar wants to bring back the Jungle Raj or continue on the path to development.”
Later, Shah made more or less the same point while campaigning in Nalanda.