Patna:
Opposition parties have wasted no time in putting Nitish Kumar, usually praised for good administration, in the dock for the mid-day meal tragedy that has struck Bihar.
On the defensive, at least two senior members of Mr Kumar's party, the Janata Dal (United), one of them a minister, have hit back alleging a "conspiracy" to discredit and destabilise the state government.
The relentless politicization of the tragedy has surged even as 22 children have died and 30 are still in hospital in yesterday's incident of alleged food-poisoning in Chhapra. In Madhubani, about 50 children were hospitalised after eating free lunch at school today. (
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The BJP, dumped unceremoniously last month by Mr Kumar, has attacked him directly. "There are increasing signs of him (Nitish Kumar) losing a grip on administration. The split has taken a toll...He is handling 18 departments and is busy in political management," said the party's Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The BJP was stung last month when, immediately after severing their 17-year-old alliance, Mr Kumar sacked all 11 of its ministers in his cabinet.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy, also of the BJP, has made serious allegations of negligence against the administration. "It took 15 hours to evacuate the children. This is criminal negligence and the state government is responsible for this. The Chief Minister should have taken them to Patna immediately. But they took the initiative of announcing the compensation rather than trying to save them. This showcases the insensitivity and the callous attitude"
"The way the opposition of Bihar is responding, I feel that it is a big conspiracy. They want to destabilise the Bihar government," said KC Tyagi of the JD(U) this afternoon. (
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It was not a stray remark. Some time later, Bihar's education minister PK Shahi said, "The government can't interfere in the probe. The police must see how the food was poisoned. Was it a conspiracy or was it inadvertent?" (
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Mr Shahi also said that groceries for the school were bought from a store owned by the husband of a teacher, who, he alleged, has political affiliations. Though the minister did not name a party, sources say the allusion is to the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, whose chief Lalu Yadav represents Chhapra in parliament.
Even the Congress, which has been seen as wooing Nitish Kumar as a potential political partner post his split with the BJP, came down hard on his administration today. The party's Jagdambika Pal said, "There have been complaints in Bihar earlier too and they did not look into it. In a way, they did not serve food but death on their plates."