Lalu Prasad Yadav slams Centre, says country heading towards 'civil war'

The former Bihar chief minister called upon the people to unite against inflation and unemployment, news agency ANI reported.

New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday (June 5, 2022) slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre and alleged that the country is "heading towards civil war". The former Bihar chief minister also called upon the people to unite against inflation and unemployment.

"The way BJP is working, the country is moving towards civil war. I call upon the people to unite against inflation, unemployment and corruption in the country," Lalu was quoted as saying by ANI news agency.

Lalu, who was granted bail in the Rs 139.35-crore illegal withdrawal from Doranda Treasury by the Jharkhand High Court in April, also appealed to the secular forces to unite and fight together.

"We do not have to back off," he added.

Meanwhile, the opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar on Sunday also hit out at the BJP-led NDA at the Centre as well as the state, by imposing an "undeclared emergency" on the country wherein dissent is being stamped out by "misuse" of probe agencies and smear campaigns are launched against those critical of the regime. 

Lalu's younger son and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, besides CPI and CPI(ML) secretaries general D Raja and Dipankar Bhattacharya respectively, were among those who addressed a mammoth gathering in Patna. The meeting was organised on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the call given by Jayaprakash Narayan for "sampoorna Kranti" (total revolution) on this date at the historic Gandhi Maidan in the city.

The occasion was also marked by Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the state, presenting a "report card" on the alleged misrule of the Nitish Kumar government which has been ruling the state since 2005 except for a period of less than two years during which Yadav's party allied with the JD(U) and he served as the deputy chief minister.

"सम्पूर्ण क्रांति दिवस" के अवसर पर पटना के ज्ञान भवन, बापू सभागार में आयोजित महागठबंधन प्रतिनिधि सम्मेलन में पहुँच सम्पूर्ण क्रांति के प्रेणता लोकनायक जयप्रकाश जी को कोटि-कोटि नमन किया।

समस्त देशवासियों को "सम्पूर्ण क्रांति दिवस" की हार्दिक बधाई। pic.twitter.com/VA3MMs3N2K — Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) June 5, 2022

Yadav said his report card sought to underscore that the government in the state, though headed by Kumar, a socialist, was being run "as per the agenda of Nagpur", an allusion to the headquarters of the RSS, the apex body of the Sangh Parivar of which the BJP is the political offshoot.

He lambasted the NDA for achieving "power through backdoor", an apparent reference to the BJP and Kumar's sudden realignment in 2017 after nearly four years of acrimony, and alleged misuse of administrative machinery in the 2020 assembly elections wherein the Grand Alliance stopped short of winning a majority.

The young RJD leader claimed that his party was "the only regional outfit which has never compromised with the BJP" and reminded the people of his father Lalu Prasad, who "has not been cowed down despite all investigating agencies having been let loose against him".

(With agency inputs)