Patna: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad once again found his family embroiled in a massive controversy after his eldest son-in-law Shailesh Kumar attended the departmental meeting of minister Tej Pratap. As pictures of Shailesh Kumar from the meeting went viral, BJP also launched an attack on the RJD.
Tej Pratap took oath as minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet on August 16 and on the same day he took charge of the environment, forest, and climate change department which was allocated to him. On August 17, Tej Pratap chaired a review meeting of the environment, forest, and climate change department at Aranya Bhawan. Tej Pratap's brother-in-law was seen sitting in this meeting with department officials.
On August 18, Tej Pratap held another meeting with officials of the Bihar Pollution Control Board, which was once again attended by Shailesh Kumar. This time he was seen sitting along with Tej Pratap.
A massive controversy erupted after videos and pictures of both the meetings went viral on social media with the BJP questioning in which capacity Shailesh Kumar attended the meetings.
Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member who was also the former deputy CM of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi took a jibe at Nitish over Tej Pratap allowing his brother-in-law, in the official meeting of the department.
“For the past three years, Lalu Yadav's eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav has been in the limelight. Once again, as a minister when he called the first meeting of the department, it was his brother-in-law Shailesh Kumar who was conducting the meeting, not Tej Pratap. Now, the big question arises how come his brother-in-law had access to the meeting, how did the office of the department allow him to conduct the meeting? Modi asked.
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He further said, “This is just the beginning, the top leader of RJD Lalu Prasad Yadav will interfere in every matter now. The people of Bihar should be ready to witness more such incidents in days to come. Nitish Ji has to answer whether he has allowed the entry of family members, son-in-law, and brother-in-law in official meetings of the government.”
Nobody should take Tej Pratap Yadav lightly. Shailesh is also seen sitting in the meeting. I can vouch that of all the ministers from the RJD, Kota Kumar is the most intelligent, knowledgeable, and talented. If Shailesh Kumar's blessings are with Tej Pratap, then he will emerge as the best minister in the government", a BJP spokesperson tweeted taking a jibe at Shailesh.
Countering the allegations, RJD spokesperson Ritu Jaiswal told ETV Bharat that it is a trivial issue and no need to make a big fuss over it. She also claimed that BJP leaders are making unnecessary statements about the issue. “This is nothing but frustration of the BJP leaders after being kicked out of power. I can understand their pain but we never thought they will stoop so low. It is just a trivial issue and they are unnecessarily making statements against our leader. We should overlook such incidents. Shailesh Ji must be waiting there or maybe he was asked to wait by the official. I don't think he was part of the official meeting,” Jaiswal stressed.
Even earlier, something similar had happened when Mukesh Shani was a minister and he had sent his brother Santosh Kumar Sahni to represent him in a government function. At that time RJD was in opposition and the incident had caused massive controversy including a demand for Mukesh's resignation. In fact, Nitish had to intervene and expressed his displeasure over the minister's act.
Summing up the clash between BJP and RJD, Patna-based political expert Dr. Sanjay Kumar stressed that the incident is a violation of protocol. “Such incidents malign the image of the government and it is also a violation of protocol. Family members are not allowed in any government meetings. No doubt, family members should not be part of official meetings. It also sets a bad precedent and conveys a wrong message to the people. Such acts will not fetch any bonus to the government and shouldn't be repeated,” Dr. Sanjay asserted.
