Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday blamed two persons — a ruler and his agent — for instigating the communal clashes that occurred at Biharsharif and Sasaram towns during the Ram Navami celebrations last week.
Both places are limping back to normalcy.
Nitish also indirectly referred to the devastating 2002 Gujarat riots and said the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was very angry about it.
“Do log hain, samajh lijiye. Ek raj kar raha hai, doosra uske saath uska agent hai. Wo milkar ye sab idhar udhar kar raha hai. (There are two people. Understand this. One is ruling, while the other is with him as his agent. Together, they are doing these wheeling and dealing),” Nitish said in what was perceived as a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
"Do these people even know anything? What had happened there? Atal ji was very angry. Anyway, leave these things...,” Nitish said while referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots that occurred when Modi was the chief minister of the state.
Nitish was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the birth anniversary of former deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram in the state capital.
Asserting that the strife at Biharsharif and Sasaram were deliberately orchestrated, Nitish vowed to take the perpetrators to task.
"Investigations are going on. You all will get to know that these (riots) were deliberate acts. One was deliberately done at a place where he (read Amit Shah) was supposed to visit while another was at Biharsharif, a place that I have named and is close to me,” Nitish said.
Shah was supposed to visit Sasaram on April 2 to attend a public function to commemorate the birth anniversary of Emperor Asoka but had to cancel it in light of the violence.
However, Shah did visit Bihar and addressed a scheduled public rally at Nawada, which was marked by his comment that the BJP would “hang the rioters upside down and straighten them out”. He also called up Bihar governor Rajendra Arlekar to discuss the riots but did not get in touch with Nitish.
Questioning the propriety of dialling the governor, Nitish attacked Shah for going against the spirit of the Constitution.
“See the Constitution and the provisions since the beginning. Does one have to talk only to the governor or to the government as well if anything happens? I never object to anybody visiting here. People should know how long these people have been in politics and how long I have been in it,” said Nitish, who has spent over half a century in active politics.
Reacting to Shah’s comments that the doors of the BJP were forever closed for him, Nitish retorted: “What doors they have? Do they have any doors?”
The chief minister slammed the BJP for indulging in publicity without doing any work. He also termed AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi as a person special to the saffron party and working in cahoots with it.
Rejecting administrative failure as a reason behind the violence at Biharsharif and Sasaram, Nitish repeatedly emphasised on the conspiracy behind it.
The BJP legislators created a ruckus in the Legislative Assembly, demanding a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the communal violence at Sasaram and Biharsharif. They also demanded a statement by Nitish in the House over the violence.
BJP MLA and former minister Jivesh Mishra was marshalled out from the Assembly on Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary’s order during the pandemonium that prevailed.