Patna (Bihar): Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh, who often embarrassed the Nitish Kumar government by his outspokenness, tendered his resignation, his father and state RJD president Jagadanand Singh said on Sunday. Though the minister could not be reached for his comments after the drastic step, his father said Sudhakar Singh had lent his voice to the concerns of the farming community but sometimes, this is not enough. Sacrifices have to be made. Therefore, the agriculture minister has sent his resignation letter to the government.
Jagadanand Singh, whose proximity to RJD president Lalu Prasad and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav has earned him a second consecutive term as the state unit chief, cryptically added that the move was taken because we did not want the rift to widen (hum nahin chahte hain ki ye ladaai aage badhe).
He invoked the memories of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose birth anniversaries fall on October 2, and added that his son had walked in their footsteps by empathising with the farmers. A first-term RJD MLA from Ramgarh, Sudhakar Singh had left the chief minister fuming by candidly speaking about corruption and bureaucratic high-handedness in his department on several occasions. The BJP, which has been licking its wounds since losing power in the upheaval triggered by Kumar's exit from the NDA, latched on to the opportunity.
Sudhakar Singh had been raising his voice against afsarshahi' (bureaucratic high-handedness). This is something that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cannot tolerate. Hence he has been made to resign, said state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal. The BJP had raised a hue and cry when Singh was inducted into the cabinet over a case relating to default on payment by a rice mill owned by him.