 "Narendra Modi")
Bhola Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Bihar, today joined a growing list of party leaders that have criticised the statements by and functioning of the party leadership for having contributed to its defeat in Bihar assembly polls.
But Bhola Singh, and before him Shatrughan Sinha, former home secretary R K Singh and Hukumdev Narayan Yadav have been dismissed by the BJP as "outsiders", leaders who had joined party from other ideological streams and not steeped in the party or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology and traditions. The BJP has also cautioned party members that only authorized spokespersons should speak to the media on the reasons for the Bihar loss.
Bhola Singh, a two time MP from Begusarai, attributed BJP's Bihar defeat to the "indecorous language" used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaigning. He said the PM fell in the trap laid by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.
"People went to Modi looking for a Prime Minister but they found a Lalu in him," Bhola Singh, an eight time MLA, said. "Prime Minister fell to Lalu's googly and left his 'sabka saath sabka vikas' or development pitch. He started speaking in Lalu's language. He began using undignified language while Nitish Kumar did not forget decorum even in the battle field," he said in Patna.
He also said that that Modi and BJP President Amit Shah tried to polarize the election on religious lines by raking up issues like reservation for Muslims and Pakistan. "Or for what else you will raise the issue of cow or Pakistan. The campaign should have been about Bihar's backwardness and its development but we lost our way and fell into a ditch," Bhola Singh said.
Bhola Singh had become an MLA in 1967 as an independent and later joined the Communist Party of India, then the Congress, the Janata Dal and is now a BJP member for over a decade. He said that Modi lost his dignity during the campaign but Kumar remained dignified and "did not become animal in the battle field".
He also criticized the PM for making BJP's Nawada MP Giriraj Singh a minister even after his comments during the Lok Sabha elections that those who do not vote for BJP should go to Pakistan. He also criticized RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his quota comments, saying if he calls the Sangh a cultural body, then he should not have made a political statement during a crucial election.
Bhola Singh is the first to directly attack Modi and Shah. BJP Secretary Shrikant Sharma said: "The party rejects Singh's criticism. We appeal to all party leaders to observe restraint." Sharma said the party lost in Bihar because of the social arithmetic of its rival alliance, the Mahagathbandhan.
Party sources also said that the criticism has come from those who are 'outsiders'. Sinha is a popular actor who joined the party in 1991, while Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, who slammed Bhagwat for his reservation remarks to have contributed to the defeat, is a former socialist and RK Singh, who flagged the issue of corruption in ticket distribution, is a former bureaucrat. Even ally and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, leader of the Hindustan Awam Morcha, has criticized the BJP President for his statement that firecrackers will be burst in Pakistan if BJP were to lose Bihar.
Today, Sinha gave a riposte to party colleague Kailash Vijayvargiya's dog analogy on him. "People want my reaction to Vijayvargiya's remark. My reaction to small or big flies in any party is "Haathi chale Bihar,....bhaunken hazaar" (many bark but the caravan moves on)," Sinha said in a tweet. He had met RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Monday to congratulate him on the victory, and has been critical of his own party leadership's functioning during the Bihar poll campaign.
