Upendra Kushwaha borrows PM Modi’s ‘DNA’ barb to taunt Nitish Kumar

Muzaffarpur: Union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha borrowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2015 remark over Nitish Kumar’s DNA Sunday to attack the Bihar chief minister who is also the JD(U) president.

Kushwaha reminded Kumar that Modi had made the remark in some other context but he (Kumar) had taken it as an insult to him and Bihar and asked his partymen to collect samples of hair and nail to be sent to Delhi for verifying the DNA.

“We are still eagerly waiting for that DNA report. If the report is with you, please share its content. If the DNA remark had really hurt you, then what happened to the report my dear elder brother,” Kushwaha said at an RLSP rally. The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief has been peeved after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally, the Janata Dal (United), decided to contest an equal number of seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in Bihar.

The state sends 40 members to Parliament and after the BJP-JD(U) deal, there is speculation that whether this would mean fewer seats for other allies like the RLSP and the Ramvilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Kushwaha’s attack on Kumar followed a statement by the chief minister Saturday, in which he had said, “Itna neeche baat ko nahi le jaiye (do not take the debate to such a low level.” Kumar had said this to a specific question on the issue of seat sharing and Kushwaha at a television news channel’s programme. It appeared that Kushwaha picked up the word “neeche” from the statement and took it as an insult to himself as the RLSP chief was the topic of discussion.

“It (Kumar’s statement) has hurt me the way you replied to the reporters’ question referring to my name. As we both belonged to the same family of Luv-Kush, how could I become neech? And if it is so, then you must share your DNA report,” he said. Both Kumar and Kushwaha are Other Backward Caste (OBC) leaders, belonging to the Kurmi and Koery castes respectively.

In 2015, Kumar had invited Modi to a dinner only to cancel it. Later, at a rally, the prime minister had said, “There seems to be some problem in his (Kumar’s) DNA, because the DNA of democracy is not like that. In democracy, you respect even your political rivals.” Kumar, in an open letter, had then said the DNA remark was deemed as “an insult by a large section of the people of the state and beyond”.

With the Bihar Assembly polls knocking on the door then, Kumar had conducted a drive to collect hair and nail, “DNA samples”, of Biharis to send to the prime minister. Kushwaha said, “Whether or not you (Kumar) wanted that report, the people of Bihar and the country are eagerly waiting for it.”

A week ago, Kushwaha had maintained that the seat-sharing formula for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituents in Bihar was yet to be formalised and that an equal number of seats for the BJP and the JD(U) had left scope for a respectable share for his party. The Union minister had also said that he was firmly with the NDA and committed to working for another term for Modi as prime minister.