The poster of the state tourism department at Hartali Mor in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The Opposition has taken a strong exception to a poster put up by the state tourism department at Hartali Mor that features Nitish Kumar and reads ‘Main Bihar hoon, pichle saat salon me maine kranti ki lehar dekhi hai...’ (I am Bihar and I have seen a revolution in the past seven years).

“The poster has the photograph of only Nitish and excluded all others. This clearly indicates that there was a vested political interest and the basic idea behind this entire festival was to promote the image of Nitish alone. Celebrating 100 years of the state is a good idea. But here in Bihar, it was just another case of misuse of government machinery in support of the political gimmick of Nitish,” said Ram Chandra Purbey, the state president of the RJD.

Purbey sought an achievement letter from the state government with regard to the centenary celebrations. “Since crores of public money were spent on organising the Bihar Divas, the state government must issue a corresponding achievement letter. The letter must explain how such a huge expenditure has helped in the uplift of all sections of society, including those belonging to the below poverty line (category),” he said.

The principal secretary of the state human resource department and the nodal officer of Bihar centenary year celebrations, Anjani Kumar Singh, told The Telegraph: “A sum of Rs 20 crore has been spent on organising the centenary year celebrations, including making arrange-ments at Gandhi Maidan, by all departments of the state government.”

State tourism minister Sunil Kumar ‘Pintu’, however, defended the poster by claiming that it is part of a sequence of posters based on renowned people from the state.

“We will release posters on Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Veer Kunwar Singh, Sher Shah Suri and Guru Govind Singh among others who have contributed to the rich history of the state. No one can challenge any of our slogans in any of the posters. As far as this particular poster is concerned, I do not find anything wrong in it. No one can deny that the state has undergone tremendous development in the past seven years,” Pintu said.

“I deny all allegations brought by the Opposition as they have stooped to such a level where they have dragged the names of some eminent people of the state in caste politics. Their aim is to tarnish the image of the government in organising such a huge function,” he added.

The Opposition, however, is not ready to accept the explanation. “This is an obvious case of misuse of taxpayers’ money. Putting the image of the chief minister on the poster of centenary year celebrations is completely unethical. There would not have been an issue if it was a poster of the JD(U). Nitish is not so significant to compare his name with Veer Kunwar Singh or Sher Shah Suri,” said Ram Kripal Yadav, RJD secretary general and a Rajya Sabha member.