July 9: The BJP today continued with its ritualistic attack on the Centre over the Bodhgaya serial blasts but took diametrically opposite stands on chief minister Nitish Kumar vis-à-vis the suspected terror attack and the governance of the state.

Mild in Bodhgaya in the morning on the context of the serial blasts at Mahabodhi Mahavihara, BJP president Rajnath Singh launched a scathing attack in the afternoon on Nitish for the Bagaha firing incident. In the context of the blasts, he said: “No state government can alone counter terrorism and extremism. They need assistance and expertise from the Centre.”

Reaching Patna at 12.50pm, Rajanath said: “There is a state of anarchy in Bihar in the wake of the JD(U)’s split with the BJP and Nitish Kumar has lost the moral authority to rule the state.”

Rajnath, along with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, landed in Gaya around 10.15am. After visiting the Bodhgaya temple, two days after the terror strike on the holy shrine, the BJP chief hit out at the Centre.

Strongly condemning what he described as an “act of terror” on the holiest of the Buddhist shrines, Rajnath said: “There should be a comprehensive plan to counter terrorism as well as Maoists’ extremism. I demand the Centre to provide special security to the holiest of the Buddhist sites. There should be proper co-ordination among the national security agencies to deal with terror and issues related to the country’s security.” Obliquely referring to the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, he said: “The two premier security agencies — the IB and the CBI — are face-to-face because of the Centre’s faulty policies.”

In the context of the blasts at Bodhgaya, the BJP boss was not that critical of Nitish. “No state government can alone counter terrorism and extremism. They need assistance and expertise from the Centre,” he said.

“If the Centre was aware that the Buddhist site was under terrorist threat, why did the home ministry fail to establish proper co-ordination with the state? The Centre should have provided adequate security to the shrine if it had the intelligence inputs on threat to it. Merely passing on the information to the state was not sufficient,” he added.

Changing his stance completely on Nitish after reaching Patna, he said: “Twenty-five days after the JD(U) snapped ties with the BJP, the perception is gaining ground that the state was getting back to the Lalu raj type situation.”

Strongly condemning the police firing on Tharu tribals in Bagaha that left six people killed last month, Rajnath said: “There were several other ways to calm down the anger of the innocent tribals. Firing on them amounted to barbarity.”

Replying to a query related to the blasts at Bodhgaya, the BJP boss on his second visit to the state after the split in the NDA, said: “The blasts were the handiwork of the international terrorist organisations’ ‘sleeper cells’ in country. The government should have comprehensive action plan to deal with the situation.”

Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi ended his 24-hour fast against the police firings at Bagaha, Jainagar and Forbesganj, and the terror strike in Bodhgaya in the presence of Rajnath and Jaitley.

After the duo offered Modi coconut water, Jaitley launched an attack on the JD(U) leaders who recently described Ishrat Jahan, a victim of alleged fake encounter in Gujarat, as “Bihar ke beti (daughter of Bihar)”. He said: “We are surprised that some leaders have developed a tendency to accord martyrdom to the elements who were out to break India and despise the ones struggling to save India.”

The JD(U) MP, Ali Anwar, recently described Ihsrat as the daughter of the state for her Bihar origin after the CBI chargesheeted the policemen allegedly involved in the fake encounter that killed Ishrat and Shohrabuddin Sheikh in Gujarat.

Jaitley also asked the BJP workers to resort to the same resolve that they had resorted to to replace the jungle raj presided over by the Lalu-Rabri regime in 2005. He also came down heavily on the weak policies of the Centre on terrorism and extremism.

Senior party leaders Dharmendra Pradhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shahnawaz Hussain and Nandkishore Yadav accompanied Rajnath and Jaitley to Bodhgaya as well as the Kargil Chowk to break Modi’s fast.