Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said the Opposition’s defeat in Bihar is not only a strong endorsement of the Nitish Kumar government but also a clear rejection of the Congress leadership’s attempt to associate Rahul Gandhi with the title ‘Jan Nayak’ given to Karpoori Thakur.
Senior JDU leader KC Tyagi has said the Opposition alliance’s defeat in Bihar, besides it being an “overwhelming people’s endorsement of the Nitish Kumar government’s policies”, is also an “absolute and angry popular rebuff of Rahul Gandhi’s and Congress leadership’s attempt to usurp the ‘Jan Nayak’ title” of iconic Samajwadi leader and former chief minister Karpoori Thakur”.
Tyagi also said the Congress leadership “instead of crying horse about vote-chori” should recognise there were no takers for their “opportunistic preaching” of the very same social justice themes that the party had firmly opposed all through. “Rahul and Congress tried to blatantly usurp the ‘Jan Nayak’ title of Karpoori Thakur and the election result also showed people of Bihar’s rebuffing that attempt. People with great love and respect had conferred the title of ‘Jan Nayak’ on Karpoori Thakur for his nearly fifty years of toiling for the causes of the socially downtrodden. The Congress’ attempt to project Rahul as ‘Jan Nayak’ has made people of Bihar furious and they have shown that nobody will be allowed to steal Thakur’s title,” Tyagi told ET. “If anyone, on another day, tries to appropriate Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Bapu’ title or ‘Lok Nayak’ title of Jayaprakash Narayan, their fate will be the same,” he cautioned. The AICC establishment, especially the Team Rahul, has of late been systematically projecting Rahul Gandhi as the ‘Jan Nayak’ and champion of social justice, a tactic Congress leaders and its social media handles played out in the Bihar campaign also. Tyagi, who has been part of the Samajwadi political stream since his student days, also questioned the Congress’ bid to reposition itself as a Mandal party by playing the OBC plank. “When the Karpoori Thakur government in 1978 implemented the Mungeri Lal Commission report in Bihar and announced quota for OBCs, EBCs and economically backward sections of general caste, Congress opposed it. The Congress-led central governments always buried the Mandal Commission proposal for OBC quota, and when the VP Singh government implemented it, Rajiv Gandhi led the Congress opposition to it. During 10 years of Congress-led UPA rule when Rahul was very influential, he never pitched for caste census, OBC cause or for enhancing reservation slab above 50% quota and including it the 9th Schedule, the very causes for which the Samajwadis all through fought for,” Tyagi said.
Tyagi further said, “After all their electoral tactics failed, Rahul opportunistically started projecting himself and Congress as champions of social justice and OBC politics, the very planks they never practised while in power. When Rahulji, who had tried to do politics as Panditji (janue dhari), started projecting himself as a social justice champion, the Bihar electorate rejected it as hollow and even the Congress leaders and supporters were not convinced of it and never backed him.”
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
