Patna, April 14 (PTI): Chief minister Nitish Kumar today launched a blistering attack against the BJP and the RSS, saying they were chanting the name of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar but behaving in a manner opposite to the values promoted by him.

"These days, the BJP and the RSS are chanting B.R. Ambedkar's name but their behaviour is opposite to that," Nitish said, while addressing a function to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the father of Indian Constitution here.

"A Dalit student is pushed to commit suicide in a central university. Students are sent to jail on charge of sedition," the Bihar chief minister said, apparently referring to the suicide of scholar Rohit Vemula and the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

"The party (BJP), indulging in acts diametrically opposite to values promoted by Ambedkar, is giving the sermon of doing good for the poor," he said, asking people to be cautious of such forces.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a village self-governance campaign at Ambedkar's birthplace in Madhya Pradesh.

"The party, which came to power shouting ' sabka saath sabka vikas' got engaged in activities like love jihad, beef eating and nationalism sedition," he alleged.

"Those having no contribution in the freedom struggle are trying to replace the Tricolour with the saffron flag and bragging about patriotism," claimed Nitish, who drove the JDU to snap 17-year-old ties with BJP in June 2013 in Bihar.

Taking potshots at the Narendra Modi government, he said: "By entering into an agreement with the US, allowing them to use our strategic places, the central government has knelt down before the US and is still talking of Start-up India."

Former Speaker and JDU vice-president Uday Narayan Chaudhary presided over the function at the party headquarters here.