Bihar parties play blame game as boys freed

The release of two Bihar school boys after they had been kidnapped over two weeks ago has exposed the depth of the rift between Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his Cabinet colleague Lok Jan Shakti party chief Ram Vilas Paswan. The event also opened up a political can of worms in the state.

Although all political parties expressed relief, RJD chief Prasad alleged that the kidnappings were part of the conspiracy to defame his party's government in the state of Bihar and openly accused LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan of engineering the kidnappings.

"Those who were trying to make political capital out of the kidnapping and organising protests should have realised that it could have put his life in danger. They should have desisted from this," the Railway minister added. He said "there is a conspiracy to defame the state government and we will expose those who are orchestrating the kidnappings."

Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi said the police were also investigating "in which parties criminals exist." Prasad alleged that gangster Chunnu Thakur who was involved in Kislay's abduction, had links with the LJP of Ramvilas Paswan.

He claimed that Thakur wanted the LJP ticket for his wife, who was also held in connection with the kidnapping.

Reacting strongly to the RJD chief's charge, Paswan described the kidnapping and subsequent release of Kislay as "stage-managed."

"The timing of the recovery of the child just a day before the first phase of assembly polls suggests that the RJD wants to take political mileage out of it but since people are aware of these tactics of the RJD supremo, they will not be fooled," Paswan said.

"Nobody of my party was even remotely involved in the incident," he said.

The BJP too attacked RJD chief Lalu Prasad saying that he knew "from the very beginning that the Bihar government and police knew about Kislay's whereabouts.

His safe release a day before the first phase of assembly elections in the state exposes a serious nexus between the kidnappers and the Rabri Devi government," said party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The BJP also said that two Cabinet ministers in the same government accusing each other of criminal conduct was shameful and that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should "decide which of his ministers is the real criminal".