'Attack on BJP van Laloo Yadav's bid to divert attention'

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly, Sushil Kumar Modi, said that the attack on him and Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Patna on Tuesday by a group of Janata Dal legislators and workers was made to divert attention from the multimillion fodder scam allegedly involving Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Modi has apprised the BJP central leadership in New Delhi about the attack made on the BJP publicity vehicle by the Bihar chief minister's brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav alias Anirudh Prasad, a Janata Dal legislator. The attackers snatched publicity material from the BJP vehicle and beat up its occupants and said those seeking to tarnish Laloo Yadav's image would be severely dealt with because the people of Bihar would not tolerate "any insult to our beloved chief minister." The BJP workers, led by Arvind Kumar Verma, later filed a first information report with the secretariat police station, naming Sadhu Yadav and others as the culprits.

BJP spokesman Yashwant Sinha pointed out that the attack on the BJP vehicle and workers only proved that the Bihar chief minister had been rattled due to "his omissions and commissions and persuaded his followers to attack the BJP under the guise of fighting communalism."

Sinha said that the attack was one among many which had been unleashed by the chief minister and his cohorts ever since he was interrogated by the CBI for his alleged role in the scam. "Laloo Yadav's claims of fighting the BJP is laughable. He is in deep trouble and has sought to divert attention from his delicate plight concerning the fodder scam," Sinha added.

Modi has urged the party leadership to lodge a strong protest with the federal Home Minister Indrajit Gupta regarding the incident since the Janata Dal members had allegedly unleashed a region of terror, especially after Laloo Yadav had been put in the dock by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Modi has called for the immediate arrest of Sadhu Yadav for leading the "dastardly attack which was made to bail out the Bihar chief minister from the scandal, " it has been learnt.

However, Laloo Yadav, currently in New Delhi, ridiculed the efforts of the BJP members whom he described as a gang of communal thugs. Yadav appeared confident and wholly unperturbed at the developments concerning his alleged role in the fodder scam. "I have told you, I have nothing to do with this fodder affair. If my officials in the government are guilty, they should be punished, why should I have any objection," he told a group of journalists.

He aggressively brushed aside suggestion by journalists present that as the chief minister he must have known what was happening in his state government. "Yes, I am the chief minister, but not God. I cannot keep monitoring these things which have been done behind my back. You people should remember that," Yadav said.

Besides being in touch with former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Laloo Yadav on Thursday morning met a number of party MPs in a bid to counter the moves of those United Front leaders who have perceptibly distanced themselves away from him ever since he was interrogated by the CBI in connection with the fodder scam. He is understood to have sought an appointment with Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and other senior members of the United Front.