Tejashwi tours Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday launched a blistering attack on the ruling NDA in the state, accusing the BJP of subscribing to the ideology of Mahatma Gandhis assassin Nathuram Godse and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of having compromised on secularism to remain in power.

Yadav, who is leader of the opposition in the state assembly, was addressing a rally in this district falling in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar as part of his state-wide "Pratirodh Yatra" (resistance tour) against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, ongoing National Population Register work and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

The 30-year-old former Deputy CM of Bihar evoked the memories of his jailed father Lalu Prasad whose popularity among the states minorities remains unmatched, and said the BJP remains in "perpetual fear" of the ailing septuagenarian.

Prasad had endeared himself to the Muslims when as the then Chief Minister in 1990, he had got L K Advani arrested to stop his Ram Rath Yatra.

"It is not for nothing that Amit Shah uttered the name of Lalu ji 22 times in his speech that lasted not more than 30 minutes", said Yadav referring to the Union Home Ministers rally in Vaishali district on the previous day.

Reaffirming his partys stout opposition to the CAA, which provides for granting citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from the neighboring Islamic countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Yadav said "the law is discriminatory and clearly a first step to country-wide NRC, though the Narendra Modi government may not be admitting it at present".

"The NPR is already a clear hint of the times to come. People are being asked to furnish the proof of the places of birth of their parents.

"These people (BJP and its supporters) are descendants of Godse and they have the audacity to ask us patriots to furnish the proof of our citizenship", Yadav fumed.

The BJP accuses Lalu of corruption, regarding itself of some sort of detergent which washes away the stains of whoever collaborates with the party, he wyrly said.

The saffron party has had among its ranks a person like Swami Chinmayananda, who indulged in sexual escapades while pretending to be celibate and having renounced the world, alleged the RJD leader referring to the former Union minister.

"Another such pretender is Yogi Adityanath, who recently desecrated Gaya the land where Buddha attained Enlightenment and where Hindus from far and wide perform pind daan for salvation of their departed ancestors", said the RJD leader referring to the firebrand BJP leaders pro-CAA rally earlier this week.

Training his guns at Nitish Kumar, whose abrupt snapping of ties with the RJD in 2017 had stripped the young leader of his position in power, Yadav said "the JD(U)s constitution puts a premium on secularism. But paltu chacha (turncoat uncle) has compromised it all for the sake of power".

Yadav, whom the RJD has declared its Chief Ministerial candidate for the assembly polls due later this year, began his state-wide tour on Thursday from adjoining Kishanganj.

State BJP president Nikhil Anand issued a statement in Patna terming Yadavs rallies a "flop" and claiming that the turnout was "not even as large" as the one seen at a public meeting addressed by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in Kishanganj recently.

Owaisi's party, which won the Kishanganj assembly seat in the by-polls last year, is trying to expand its popularity in the Muslims dominated seemanchal region.

Anand also alleged that Muslim RJD leaders were "like second grade citizens inside their party" since they did not belong to the supremos family.