"Bihar public will not pardon you, you will have to go": Lalu Yadav to JD(U)

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav lashed out at the Janata Dal (United)-led government in Bihar on Thursday, saying that it has shirked away from its responsibilities in the light of the recent Bihar mid-day meal tragedies.

"Nitish Kumar's government is responsible. Nitish Kumar cannot run away from his responsibility. The mid-day meal program works smoothly in the rest of the country. Only in Bihar, there are these problems. The reason is that there is outright corruption in the state. The government has neglected this issue. They are only concerned with saving their seats", Yadav said.

The relentless politicization of the tragedy has escalated after 22 children died and over 80 children were hospitalized in two separate incidents (Chhapra and Madhubani), within two days in the state.

Hitting back at JD(U) Minister P.K. Shahi's statement, which labeled the tragedy a "conspiracy" with political connections, Yadav said the allegations were absolutely baseless and demanded Nitish Kumar's resignation.

"P.K. Shahi's statement is simply to distract from the main focus, which is the investigation. You have played with the lives of innocent children, and the Bihar public will not pardon you, and you will have to go", he added.

Yadav further went on to demand a thorough investigation of the dual tragedies immediately.

"They are accusing their own officers. It is not the responsibility of the opposition to look into the hierarchy in their chain of officers. It is the ruling party's responsibility, and they cannot shun it. We are asking for a strong investigation to be carried out," he said.

Political parties have wasted no time to bash the Nitish Kumar-led government, even though the Chief Minister is usually praised for his standards of administration.

Yesterday, even the Congress who has been in heavy favour of Nitish Kumar after the latter's split with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came down on the Bihar Chief Minister. Congress' Jagdambika Pal alleged that the Bihar state government had been careless, in a statement yesterday.

"There have been complaints in Bihar earlier too and they did not look into it. In a way, they did not serve food but death on their plates", Pal said.