Patna, July 2: The war of words continues unabated, now in the form of a written questionnaire.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar today faced a flood of questions from his former deputy on “inept steps” taken in extending relief to pilgrims of the Uttarakhand tragedy.

Sushil Kumar Modi, in a statement, asked Nitish to answer 11 questions if he was still “proud to be a person of Bihar origin”.

Modi said while the pilgrims from Bihar, including former health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who were trapped in Uttarakhand were expecting their government to come forward and help them, Nitish was busy “saving his government”. He also asked Nitish to clarify what his government did to trace the hundreds of people from Bihar still missing after the flash floods struck the hill state on June 16-17.

A day after Nitish sarcastically said he could not act like “Rambo”, an honorific that his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi earned from his supporters for helping in the rescue of pilgrims from the western state, Sushil Modi asked: “While a Maharashtra minister went to Uttarakhand with 49 officials why didn’t a single Bihar minister visit the place?” He added that within two or three days of the tragedy, more than six states made arrangements for buses, special trains and flights to bring the pilgrims back home. “Nitish should tell the people why his government did not do the same?”

Only yesterday, Nitish had ridiculed the BJP for making statements on a human tragedy like Uttarakhand. He had attacked his party’s former ally as “publicity-seekers”.

However, the JD(U) took the “bayanbaji” (war of words) — as Nitish put it yesterday — to a new level today when MLC Sanjay Singh questioned the intention of the BJP in joining hands 17 years ago. He even said that BJP leaders have turned vitriolic after “losing the ministry” and the “habit of sitting in AC rooms”.

Taking a swipe at BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who had left some harsh words for Nitish yesterday, Singh said he was “just a backbencher”.