BJP digs out 23-yr-old Nitish letter attacking Lalu

The party published selectively from Kumar's letter in full-page advertisements in vernacular dailies

In an apparent bid to create fissures in the secular alliance ahead of the remaining three phases of Assembly polls, the BJP has made public Nitish Kumar's letter to the then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad 23 years ago in which he had charged Prasad with fostering corruption and giving leverage to a particular caste in government jobs.

The BJP published selectively from Kumar's letter in full-page advertisements in vernacular dailies yesterday and asked people to decide for whom to vote.

The letters were taken from author Srikant's book 'Bihar: Chitthion ki Rajniti' (Bihar: Politics of Letter).

In the letter written in December 1992, Kumar accused Prasad, then his comrade in-arms, of renouncing social justice agenda and making it a mere slogan for personal popularity.

"There appears to be grave injustice to the extent that one can smell a sense of prejudice when one looks at practical aspect of the social justice agenda (in Bihar)," he had purportedly written in that letter.

Claiming that contrary to perception that OBC people will too benefit from the state government's thrust on social justice agenda, Kumar, the then senior leader of National Front, alleged that grave irregularities and malpractice were carried out in recruitment in police giving an impression that all vacancies were reserved for a particular dominant caste.

Kumar said he was told by an MP that a particular community was given preference in recruitment.

He had also questioned the then Chief Minister on secularism saying the conduct of the latter reflect an idea that he was the sole flag-bearer of secular ethos.