INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's border areas will become "infested with infiltrators" if Prime
Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power
Speaking at a rally in Jhanjharpur parliamentary constituency, situated close to Nepal and Bangladesh, Shah accused Bihar chief minister
Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad of pursuing "appeasement politics" through measures like cuts in holidays of
government schools."I would like to congratulate the people of Bihar for putting up a resistance that forced the state government to
withdraw its order whereby holidays on Rakshabandhan, the festival of brothers and sisters, and Janmashtami, devoted to Lord Krishna, were
done away with," said Shah.The allusion was to the recent protests by teachers across the state which led the education department to
withdraw the new calendar which was brought in with the aim of ensuring that classes were held for the requisite number of days in a year.He
speaks nonsense: Bihar CM on ShahOn Shah's public address in the state, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said: "Don't pay attention to it
I don't pay attention to anything of theirs
When he comes, he speaks nonsense
Does he have any knowledge of Bihar's development and how much work is happening here?"Shah slams CongressContinuing with the tirade against
"tushtikaran" (appeasement), the home minister slammed the Congress, a partner in the state's ruling alliance, for dragging its feet on Ram
temple at Ayodhya and Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.Showering praises on PM Modi for abrogation of Article 370
and making possible the construction of the temple "by January next year", the home minister, however, struck an alarming note."If the
Lalu-Nitish duo (jodi) returns to power in Bihar and Narendra Modi does not come back as Prime Minister, the entire region will become
infested with infiltrators (saara seemant kshetra ghuspaithiyon se bhar jaaega)", said Shah."In such a situation, many types of issues will
arise in Bihar (anek prakaar ke sawaal khade honge)
Do you want the area to be teeming with infiltrators," the home minister asked.'BJP will win 40 seats in Bihar'He, however, exuded
confidence that the BJP-led NDA, which performed well in Bihar in the last couple of Lok Sabha polls, will win "all 40 seats" of the state
in 2024.The NDA had secured 39 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections in Bihar and will now look to "break all records" in next year's polls
by winning all the seats, said Shah
Shah also slammed the INDIA coalition for the alleged denigration of "Sanatana Dharma" and claimed that the Congress-led coalition did away
with the previous name "UPA" because it had been associated with "scams involving Rs 12 lakh crore"."Some of the scams involved Lalu Prasad,
who was then the railway minister, to which Nitish Kumar is now turning a blind eye for the sake of his prime ministerial ambitions",
alleged Shah.Shah, who reached the venue by a chopper he took at Darbhanga, credited the Modi government for the airport at the north Bihar
town and said an allocation of Rs 1,200 crore has been made to upgrade the one at Patna.He also blamed the state government for the stalling
of construction of AIIMS at Darbhanga "which would have made Bihar a state with more than one such hospital (after Patna)"."The Nitish Kumar
government had allotted a tract of land that was unsuitable for the project
Moreover, they have now taken the entire 81 acres back", alleged Shah.(With input from agencies)WatchAmit Shah: Lalu wants to make his son
the chief minister and Nitish Kumar wants to become PM
