I'm more popular than Nitish Kumar in Pakistan, says Lalu Prasad

Saharsa: Ridiculing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly seeking publicity after his recent Pakistan visit, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Sunday claimed that he was more popular in that country than Kumar.

"The people and politicians in Pakistan still talk about me and my administrative capabilities," he told a public meeting during his 'Parivartan Yatra' in Bihar's Saharsa district.

"My contributions as the railway minister is being effusively talked about in political circles in Pakistan even now," he said, referring to Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) MP lawmaker Sajid Ahmed's statement last month that Pakistani railways be handed over to the former Indian railway minister for the revival of its fortunes.

Lalu Prasad said the people and politicians in Pakistan still talk about his administrative capabilities.

The RJD supremo, who had also visited Pakistan as a member of the parliamentary delegation in 2003, claimed, he had left a lasting imprint on the minds of the people in that country and the words of praise coming his way from a Pakistan lawmaker proved that he was still being talked about positively in the corridors of power in Islamabad.

"Such visits are routine affairs," Prasad said and asked Kumar to concentrate on mitigating the miseries of the minorities in the state.

Criticising Kumar for his 'feeble protest' on the arrest of Muslim youths from Bihar by security agencies of other states on fake and fabricated terror charges, Prasad said he neither provided legal aid to the detainees to prove their innocence or consoled the aggrieved families.

"Let him (Kumar) prove me wrong," he said.

Prasad also questioned the secular credentials of the chief minister and alleged that the minorities, like the weaker and downtrodden sections of the society, had suffered various atrocities from the police and the communal forces during the NDA rule even as the latter 'looked the other way for convenience.'

The RSS and BJP have made significant inroads in the minorities-dominant border districts during the NDA regime fostering a sense of insecurity among the Muslims, Prasad claimed and charged Kumar with sitting on the 'lap of communal forces for political power.'

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