Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav on Sunday clanged utensils to protest against Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally to be held today and over the situation of migrant workers.
RJD leaders along with other people were seen wearing, masks and maintaining social distancing while staging the protest.
Tejashwi Yadav lashed out at the ruling governments both at Centre and the state and said, "Rather than helping the poor, needy and migrants, they want to win elections even at the cost of human lives. Electioneering at this juncture is nothing but political vulturism."
"They (the JD(U)-BJP government) are celebrating the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown," Tejashwi Yadav alleged in his brief interaction with media during the protest, referring to Shah's rally scheduled later in the day.
Tejashwi Yadav accused the Nitish Kumar government of treating migrant workers as second class citizens and raked up the withdrawn circular by police headquarters voicing apprehension that the return of a large number of jobless labourers could pose a law and order problem.
"The government is treating the poor people of Bihar like 'goonda and lootera'," the younger son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, who has already been declared the party's chief ministerial face for the assembly election due in October- November, said.
He also took a swipe at Shah's digital rally when the state and the country were ravaged by the pandemic.
The ruling dispensation could have used digital technology for providing relief to the millions of poor affected by the calamity. But that seems to be none of its concern. The digital rally is an obvious indication that they are merely interested in pursuing their hunger for power, he said.
Yadav said the protest was aimed at ensuring that the poor, who have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, got their due.
On the other hand, Janata Dal-United (JDU) youth members on Sunday opposed RJD's move to observe Garib Adhikaar Diwas.
Also read: Posters taking jibe at RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav, Shahabuddin come up in Patna
On June 1, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal had announced that Union home minister Amit Shah will hold a virtual rally on June 9 to address the people of the state through video conferencing and Facebook live. "There were a lot of pending issues our country was unnecessarily dealing with but Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed all those issues. This good work has to be communicated and that is what Amit Shah is going to do on Sunday. There is nothing wrong in it, it shouldn't be politicised," a BJP leader added.
He said that the concept of a virtual rally is not new as "During 2014 national elections, Narendra Modi had conducted meetings via a 3D medium, thus telling everyone that such kind of rallies is common."
The party has set a target of roping in "At least one lakh people across the 243 assembly segments in Bihar" for the event, besides those who may prefer to listen to the speech on the social networking site, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal told media.
Slamming RJD for planning to stage a protest, BJP said that the opposition parties are trying to bring in disharmony in these trying times. However, the Left parties also announced that they would organise a statewide protest to press for their demands for ensuring food, employment and safety from Coronavirus.
(WITH INPUTS FROM AGENCIES)
