Nitish, Lalu squabble over Bihar drought

Arch rivals Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar squabbled today over the drought in Bihar with the RJD supremo claiming it was a "curse" invited by the Chief Minister who hit back at his lack of seriousness over the grim situation.
Asked about Bihar government's decision yesterday to declare drought in 33 out of a total of 38 districts, Prasad said the "sorry state" in the state due to about 25 per cent shortfall of rains was because of "curse" of Kumar eating biscuits during solar eclipse.
On October 9, 2011 during the solar eclipse, Kumar had eaten biscuits at Taregana near Patna in a bid to dispel the myth that consuming food during an eclipse invites harm.

"The drought situation in majority of the districts is result of curse of nature due to Kumar eating biscuits on the day of solar eclipse," Prasad said taking a potshot at his rival.
The RJD supremo told reporters at Patna Airport that the JD(U) government's decision has come too late when the damage has already been done.
Both Kumar and Prasad travelled on the same plane from Patna to Delhi today.

Reacting to Prasad's comment, Kumar said even in this grim situation the RJD chief by talking of orthodoxy is interested only in making people laugh.
"It's astonishing that even in a grim situation like drought he (Prasad) by talking about orthodoxy is trying to make people laugh. This shows his seriousness on the issue," he told reporters in New Delhi emerging from a meeting with Union Finance minister P Chidambaram.

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi yesterday slammed the state government for its "delayed" decision to declare the 33 districts as drought-hit.
A large number of farmers have been deprived of the assistance to compensate them for crop loss due to prevalence of drought situation, Modi said.
The farmers could have been eligible for assistance on account of crop loss if the state government had declared the 33 districts as drought-hit much earlier, he added.