Bihar CM Nitish Kumar raps Narendra Modi for rally remarks

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit back at BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, rebutting the saffron leader’s claims that Mr Kumar was an arrogant politician practising vote-bank politics and that Bihar’s Muslims were much worse off than those in Gujarat.

“This charge of being arrogant comes from someone who has no patience to even listen to criticism of himself in a democracy. I am proud to be an Indian and a Bihari. My struggles for giving Bihar its due rights and dignity are on,” said Mr Kumar  two days after Mr Modi had scathingly attacked him at a BJP rally in Purnea.

Mr Kumar defended his act in 2010 of returning a Rs 5-crore cheque sent by Mr Modi’s Gujarat government for relief work in the Kosi flood tragedy of 2008 and rejected the Gujarat Chief Minister’s description of the act as “spitting on the faces of Gujaratis”. the Bihar CM said, “I do not even spit at public places. How can I spit on anyone’s face?”