BJP slams Nitish for not visiting kids ill after mid-day meal

BJP today slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the mid-day meal deaths issue saying he has not even bothered to visit the children who took ill or meet the family members of those kids who lost their lives.

'Nitish Kumar is shamelessly trying to take cover under the conspiracy theory which certainly is very unfortunate. The fact is that 23 toddlers have died and the Chief Minister has entered into a blame game. Nowhere in the world a school campus has been converted into a graveyard,' BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy told PTI.

He said the parents of the children who died buried them outside the school in protest against the chief minister and the JD(U) government.

While alleging that Kumar is resorting to conspiracy theories on the deaths, BJP itself raked up the caste issue.

'Remarkably, 90% of the children who died after consuming the mid-day meal in Gandaman village in Chhapra were from the Extremely Backward Castes (EBC). Surprisingly, Nitish Kumar, who tom toms about the EBC in Bihar as his votebank, has refused to visit the bereaved families in Chhapra or even in the Patna hospital,' Rudy said.

BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain charged that Kumar is not visiting the hospital on the pretext that he is unwell and pointed out that there is a shroud of secrecy about his illness.

He said JD(U) is making political capital even in a case of grief and sorrow. 'Everyday JD(U) leaders are issuing a medical bulletin that the CM is unwell. But he is holding meetings with his party leaders everyday. The CM's residence has become the JD-U headquarters,' he said.

Hussain said though the hospital in Patna where the kids are recuperating is just two kilometres away, Kumar has not bothered to visit nor has he called the parents of the victims.