Former MP Upendra Kushwaha (right) addresses the news conference in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, July 31: The suspended JD(U) MP, Upendra Kushwaha, today accused the Nitish Kumar government of spoiling the minds of young students by disseminating the RSS’s communal philosophy through school textbooks.

“Life of Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (RSS founder), Hindutva and Godhara: The Missing Rage are among the books worth Rs 1 lakh supplied to the government schools in north Bihar’s Sheohar district,” Upendra Kushwaha said, adding that his Bihar Navnimran Manch would convene a meeting on August 7 to decide on its campaign against the NDA-II “secretly communalising the young minds”.

Kushwaha is the convener of the manch — a forum that the suspended and dissident JD(U) leaders have formed to fight against the chief minister, Nitish Kumar.

It is not yet known if Kushwaha’s accusations are correct. What is, however, evident is that the suspended leaders have reached to a point of no return and are gearing up for a long-drawn out battle against the chief minister.

Besides Kushwaha, MPs Lallan Singh and Manganilal Mandal, and MLC Premkumar Mani were suspended from the party in May on charge of “anti-party activities” during the 2010 Assembly elections.

The JD(U) leadership has also requested the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman to disqualify the JD(U) members in question from the House.

Enquired about Kushwaha’s allegation, a top official of the human resource development department, said: “We, so far, have no knowledge about the supply of such books. But we will look into it and ensure immediate withdrawal of such books if, at all, they have been supplied in the schools by mistake or by mischief.”

Kushwaha, a former protégée of Nitish, however, interpreted it as the chief minister’s “hidden agenda” to strengthen the RSS in the state and demanded punitive action against the officers responsible for supplying the “communal” books.