File photo of Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Jitan Ram Manjhi has done it again. The Bihar chief minister, who makes the headlines regularly with his controversial comments, added to the growing list today when he said, "if somebody plays with the lives of poor people then I will chop off his hands."
It did not take much analysis to conclude that the dire warning was meant for doctors. He was addressing a meeting in Motihari and had just detailed how he had recently cracked down on senior doctors, suspending the superintendent of the Patna Medical College hospital and issuing show-cause notices to several others on finding the hospital grossly ill-equipped to treat those injured in a stampede earlier this month.
The chief minister patted himself on the back for doing what no CM before him has done.
His party, the Janata Dal United has been thoroughly embarrassed every time the 70-year-old chief minister has made a controversial statement, a frequent occurrence since May this year when he took over from Nitish Kumar. Last month, he invited criticism for saying that drinking alcohol is all right as long as it is taken in moderation.
Each time, he has retracted and said that he has been misquoted, even if he was recorded making the remark.
Mr Manjhi was chosen to be chief minister after Nitish Kumar quit in May, a day after the JD(U) was delivered a body blow by former partner, the BJP, which all but swept Bihar in the national elections. The ruling JD(U) could win only 2 of 40 Lok Sabha seats and Mr Kumar stepped down.
His decision to ally with old foe Lalu Yadav for by-elections in August this year paid off - the two heavyweights, along with the Congress, won 6 of 10 seats, restricting the BJP to only 4.
The state votes for a new government next year and Mr Manjhi's gaffes have done no favour to his party.