Buta a nail in UPA's coffin, says Nitish

Bihar Governor Buta Singh came in for sharp criticism in the Lok Sabha today, with Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar going as far as to call him "a nail in the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) coffin".

Kumar was participating in a debate on the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar and the protest leave by Bihar Chief Secretary GS Kang over the transfer of 17 IAS and IPS officers.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil defended the governor's actions, putting forward statistics to prove that the crime rate had in fact gone down in the state since March this year. But Kumar said crime was being committed without any check, giving a lie to what the home minister was claiming.

Kumar was at his witty best when he spoke of the governor. "Buta Singh was a strong home minister. So strong that he got the locks of the Ram temple in Ayodhya reopened. So we are not really surprised at usurpation of all powers in Bihar by him," he said.

The JD(U) leader said the transfer of Siwan SP Ratan Sanjay proved that whatever Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said during the collector's conference in New Delhi had been a lie.

"When Buta Singh took over he said he would clean the kachra (trash) in Bihar. Instead, he transfers one of the most fearless and honest officers. Is this kachra he wanted to remove," Kumar remarked.

Former Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhil Kumar (Congress) spoke on the improving law and order situation in Bihar, but it was the chief secretary's actions which gained the most currency in the House.

Kumar said the chief secretary was so disgusted by the governor's behaviour that he had decided to go public with his grievances, something IAS officers cringe from doing. "It shows the depth to which executive decision-making has sunk to," the JD(U) leader said.