Chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 2: Nitish Kumar today commended Bihar police for arresting Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his aide, Asadullah Akhtar, at Raxaul on Thursday.

“The state police acted in an extremely professional manner,” Nitish told reporters on the sidelines of his janata durbar. The NIA charted out the plan based on Investigation Bureau (IB) inputs, and Bihar police cooperated, he said.

Asked, why, then, were they shying away from taking credit, he replied: “It is their greatness they are not taking credit despite a great job.”

So, would he reward cops for their work? “Of course, they should be. If the director general of police (Abhayanand) moves a proposal, the government would consider it.”

Speaking for the first time on the arrests, Nitish came down heavily on his former deputy, Sushil Kumar Modi, without naming him. “Kuchh log satta se hatne ke baad police issue par gyani ho gaye hain (Some people have turned very knowledgeable on police issues since losing power.) They’re saying anything and everything. I can’t react to that. “There is no change in the manner the police began functioning on November 24, 2005, (when the Nitish-led NDA came to power). The government does not interfere in the cops’ functioning. But some knowledgeable people (read Sushil Modi) speak on police matters at the drop of a hat.”

He also ridiculed Sushil Modi’s habit of tweeting. “Do you know what the word ‘tweet’ means,” he asked, before replying himself: “Che-che che-che, it’s the language in which birds chirp. Some people are trying to occupy the birds’ domain, posing a threat to environment too,” he said in lighter vein. Modi had tweeted that the Nitish government was soft on terrorism.

Asked of his delay in praising his police for the Bhatkal arrest, Nitish said, “The political executive is not a spokesperson for the police. I have spoken on the issue when you have asked me about it. Otherwise, I would not have spoken at all.”