Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar (file image)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's unfettered criticism of BJP leader
Narendra Modi has provoked an equal reaction today. Leaders of the BJP's Bihar branch met today with party president Rajnath Singh to discuss the escalation in hostilities for two allies who partner in Bihar and at the national level.
At the meeting with the party president, BJP members from Bihar reportedly said they do not want to end the partnership with Mr Kumar, but want their party to make it clear that attacks on Mr Modi will not be tolerated.
"We reject all unfounded inferences against Narendra Modi," party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said yesterday after Mr Kumar's speech.
The Bihar Chief Minister did not mention his counterpart in Gujarat in his address to party workers in Delhi, but jabbed repeatedly at the man who is likely to be the face of the BJP's campaign for the national election.
He suggested Mr Modi's much-brandished model of economic development in Gujarat is false advertising, and said, "The country can't be run by force, it has to be run by brotherhood and harmony, if need arises, one has to wear the 'topi' and put on the 'tilak' for the nation." Mr Modi provoked sharp criticism in 2011 when he refused to wear a skull-cap offered to him at a public function.
There were more direct strikes at Mr Modi. A resolution adopted by Mr Kumar's party, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) said that the BJP's presumptive prime minister must have "secular credentials that are beyond doubt" and that this candidate must be announced by December. If not, Mr Kumar warned, his party would not remain part of the National Democratic Alliance, the coalition anchored by the BJP.
Mr Modi was in office in 2002 when nearly 1000 Muslims were killed in communal riots in Gujarat.