Gaya, July 10: The land where Buddha found peace saw some politics and fisticuffs when Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain and others made a beeline for the Mahabodhi Temple on Wednesday.
Sonia, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Union tourism minister Ambika Soni were awaited at the Mahabodhi Mahavihara when BJP MP and member, privileges committee, Shahnawaz Hussain arrived. He entered the premises before the Congress entourage arrived.
After the Congress leaders entered the Mahavihara, state urban development minister and Gaya town BJP MLA Prem Kumar arrived there. When stopped by Gaya city superintendent of police Chandan Kushwaha on the red pedestal, Kumar argued that he was going to meet Shahnawaz Hussain. He was allowed in. But before he could enter the premises, SPG commandos caught RS Nagmani, who was accompanying him, and roughed him up. Nagmani used to represent Kumar at the Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) when the latter was minister.
Shahnawaz had entered the Mahavihara with four other MLAs, namely Prem Ranjan, Sanjay Tiger, Anil Husua and Saba Zafar. He said, “I was stopped by a sub-divisional officer and a deputy superintendent of police on the pretext that Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to visit. But I told them that we both (he and Sonia) were MPs and I am also a member of the privileges committee.”
Special protection group (SPG) commandos did ask him to remain at an isolated place during the visit of the Congress leaders but Shahnawaz, soon after, managed to hold a discussion with the home minister at the reception of Mahavihara.
By the time Sonia Gandhi, Shinde and Ambika Soni emerged from the Mahavihara and proceeded to the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) office, Shahnawaz was telling reporters that the home minister had arrived in Bodhgaya three days after the serial blasts. It was a neglect to Bihar and people of the state wanted to know why, he said, reminding all that Shinde had flown to Pune on the very night blasts took place there last year.
He also said that chief minister Nitish Kumar, who holds the home portfolio, should have received the Union home minister at Bodhgaya airport. “Nitish Kumar receives Union ministers visiting Patna. Had he been here in Bodhgaya too, there would have been a discussion between two home ministers (Shinde and Nitish Kumar) in the interest of Bihar,” Hussain said.
The BJP was with the government in the war against terror and did not want to do politics on terrorism, he said, but added that only terror tourism was not enough. “Bodhgaya is a symbol of India and blasts on this holy land is an attack on Bihar and the whole country.”
After the serial blasts on Sunday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was the first to visit. Former deputy chief minister Sushil Modi visited right after.
