Chief minister Nitish Kumar meets visitors at the janata darbar at his residence in Patna on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 3: For chief minister Nitish Kumar, duty comes first. Overcoming his personal grief, he today chose to go ahead with janata darbar stressing that raj dharma comes before anything else.

“Several of my colleagues had advised me to cancel the janata darbar in view of the death of my mother on January 1. But my mother always advised me to keep service to the people on top of the agenda. I am doing my raj dharma,” a visibly grief-stricken chief minister said.

Not only did Nitish continue with the darbar, he went to the railway station in morning to formally receive the body of late Baliram Bhagat, the former Speaker of Lok Sabha.

Nitish said cancelling the janata darbar would have been unfair.

“Many of them come to Patna a day in advance to file their petitions in janata darbar. It would not have been appropriate to cancel the event, especially because today is the first Monday of the month, in which issues related to police and revenue are taken up. Moreover, people have braved the cold to come here,” he said.

Nitish also thanked all who went to his house to console him after his mother’s death and attended her cremation on Sunday.

The crowd at Nitish’s darbar was comparatively thinner today compared to previous occasions, as the common perception was the janata darbar would be cancelled. But the chief minister assured everyone present of entertaining their complaints and giving the required instructions to the officials concerned.

Like previous occasions, Nitish went to women and the physically challenged persons first. He, however, did not spend time in talking to the people. He collected the applications and gave the instructions to officials.

The top brass of the police headquarters were sitting at tables. The public address system announced names of the petitioners and they were directed to go to a particular officer.

“This system may be better and more effective,” Nitish said.

Having done his raj dharma for four hours, the chief minister retreated to his house.

Though Nitish went ahead with his job, his party and cabinet colleagues ministers went on mourning.

The state party chief, Basisth Narayan Singh, announced in a meeting at the state JD (U) headquarters that all activities of the party would remain suspended till January 10.

The party would conduct statewide mourning meetings that day, he added.