(From left to right) Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Rajya Sabha member Tariq Anwar and AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed at the 89th birth anniversary celebrations of Sumitra Devi, the first woman cabinet minister of the state, at the planetarium in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 25: The Congress chose the stage of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to attack Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over his decision to flag off L.K. Advani’s rath yatra against corruption.

“Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has refused to flag off Advani’s rath yatra. Then, why did Nitish agree to do so?” said All India Congress Committee general secretary Shakeel Ahmed today at a meet organised by Samast Kisan Mazdoor Vikas Sangathan to mark the 89th birth anniversary of Sumitra Devi, the first woman cabinet minister of Bihar.

Meira was in town to attend the meet. Sumitra was also her mother-in-law.

Using the occasion to aim barbs at the chief minister, Ahmed added: “Let me tell you that the rath yatra will change nothing. In fact, it will only create communal disharmony in the nation.”

Congress has already slammed Advani’s rath yatra, which is scheduled to start from north Bihar on October 11.

The senior Congress leader also said: “Advani’s rath yatra will not have a favourable impression on the people. He had tried to sow seeds of hatred among people earlier as well. His yatra has always triggered communal disharmony. If Nitish supports this yatra it will be proven that he, too, is communal.”