Patna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday broke his political silence of almost four months to allege that the Narendra Modi government was taking the country towards "a totalitarian regime" and false security alarms were being raised to prepare the ground for imposing Emergency.
Lalu also attacked chief minister Nitish Kumar by comparing him with the Roman emperor Nero, who is said to have been playing music amid the destruction around him.
The former chief minister, who was on way to Ranchi to surrender in Jharkhand High Court, spoke out on the arrest of five Left-leaning activists and lawyers.
"Narendra Modi has become a dictator and the country is going through an Emergency-like situation. What kind of a Prime Minister says there is a threat that he may be killed? And because of that five intellectuals are arrested. You never know who will be arrested when," Lalu, who was arrested during the Emergency in 1975, said.
"After intellectuals and writers, the Modi government will arrest non-BJP leaders, citing one reason or the other. They just want to trap us for nothing, the way the central government did in the ED case against me and my family members. I have nothing to do in the railway tender case," he added.
Lalu did not spare Nitish, alleging that that law and order has collapsed in Bihar with rape, murder and dacoity being daily occurrences.
"Not a single day passes without an incident of murder, rape or dacoity. There is neither law nor order. Complete anarchy prevails in the state and the situation is something like when Rome was burning and Nero was playing the flute. It is the same with Nitish now. The Muzaffarpur sex abuse scandal in which minors were raped, the Bihiya incident where a woman was paraded naked, and the Jandaha murder (of an RLSP leader) - all these happened under the nose of Nitish. The chief minister doesn't have any control," Lalu said.
Lalu has to surrender on Thursday in the fodder scam cases after Jharkhand High Court refused to extend his provision bail for further medical treatment in Mumbai. While granting provisional bail to Lalu for six weeks on May 11, the court had prohibited him from speaking to the media and restrained him from making any political statement.
"When the court has rejected the plea of Laluji to extend his provisional bail on August 24, the conditions automatically got withdrawn," Lalu's advocate Prabhat Kumar told The Telegraph over phone from Ranchi.
Lalu also claimed that he and his family members had been implicated in false cases. "The cases against me and family members Rabri Devi and Tejashwi are false. The Centre just wants to keep me surrounded with cases. They are harassing me so that I cannot participate in the Lok Sabha elections, but we will ensure the departure of the Narendra Modi government," Lalu said.
Lalu said there is complete unity in the Opposition and everyone has decided to keep their ego aside to defeat the Modi regime.
