Bihar Bandh against rape cases at shelter home; railway, road services hit

A shutdown called by the Left parties in Bihar on Thursday against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district has hit rail and road traffic, police said.

The state-wide shutdown is backed by opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) (RJD), Congress, Hindustani Swam Morcha, Samajwadi Party and Lokrantrik Janata Dal.

Left party workers and supporters blocked railway tracks thereby affecting over a dozen trains since early Thursday morning.

According to reports reaching here, trains were stopped in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jahanabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Patna and Bhojpur districts.

Protesters have also blocked several roads in Siwan, Bhojpur, Nawada, Patna, Arwal, Jagabad districts.

The case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

The CBI on Sunday took over case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Tejashwi Yadav calls for united opposition against BJP's 'dictatorship'

"All the opposition parties need to come together and raise voice against what is being done by BJP across India. We need to oppose their dictatorship. If something is not done now, then soon there will be no Constitution. The Britishers came to India and treated us like slaves. Now BJP is doing the same," Tejashwi Yadav said at the 'Samvidhan Bachao Andolan' rally in Patna on Friday.

He added, "The BJP leaders will not follow any of the Consitution rules as they feel Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bigger than Constitution.

"If the Consitution is same for all, then why Karnataka is different from what happened in Bihar?" he asked.

Earlier on Friday, Tejashwi along with other alliance leaders handed over letters to the Governor, stating that they were the single largest party elected in 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election and hence should be invited to form a government in the state.

Fodder scam: Sentencing of RJD chief Lalu Yadav today

The Ranchi Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court will on Thursday pronounce the quantum of sentence against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and others in connection with fodder scam.

The court deferred the matter yesterday due to demise of advocate Vindeshwari Prasad.

The Court also found Lalu's son Tejasvi Yadav and other party leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Manoj Jha guilty of contempt of court.

On December 23, the RJD chief, along with 14 others, was found guilty by the court, while seven accused, including former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, were acquitted.

Lalu has been convicted in one of the cases of the fodder scam, wherein Rs 900 crore from the Bihar exchequer was siphoned off under the pretext of purchasing fodder for livestock, during the '80s and '90s.
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Unravelling CM Nitish Kumar's myth: Only 17 of 100 Biharis support JD(U)

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, is a very popular leader in that state, with virtues of probity in public life and governance focus on development, the English press and the larger media narrative would have us believe.

Do actual voters in Bihar think the same? Not according to our analysis. Nitish Kumar’s party has only been above the Congress in electoral popularity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been the state’s most popular party–its popularity preceding Prime Minister Narendra Modi–and no more than 17 voters chose to vote only for Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), or JD (U), according to our analysis of electoral results over six elections since 2004.

Over the last decade, voters in Bihar have voted in six elections – 2004 Lok Sabha, 2005 Vidhan Sabha, 2009 Lok Sabha, 2010 Vidhan Sabha, 2014 Lok Sabha and 2015 Vidhan Sabha. Over this period, of every 100 Bihari voters, roughly 37 voted only for the BJP, 30 only for Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), no more than 17 only for the JD (U), and 10 only for the Indian National Congress (INC).

In other words, Nitish Kumar’s supposed popularity in Bihar is not borne out in electoral numbers. So, how has Nitish Kumar been chief minister for nearly 13 years since 2005? The answer lies in Nitish Kumar’s manoeuvring of electoral alliances and taking advantage of India’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
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Nitish Kumar is Bihar CM again; former allies call tie-up with BJP betrayal

Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, a day after he dumped the RJD and the Congress, but faced murmurs of protest from senior leaders including Sharad Yadav. The Kerala unit of his party snapped ties with him.

Nitish Kumar also came under attack from former allies who called his decision a "betrayal" of the 2015 mandate.

Nitish Kumar, who took the oath of office and secrecy with his former Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, has to prove his majority in the Assembly on Friday.

He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at a hurriedly-organised event at the Raj Bhavan as JD-U supporters raised slogans of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad".

The new JD-U-BJP combine including some other parties has submitted to the Governor a list of 132 MLAs, 10 more than the half-way mark of 122 in the 243 member Assembly.

They include 71 of JD-U, BJP's 53, RLSP's and LJP's two each, HAM's one and three independents. The RJD has 80 MLAs and its ally Congress has 27. The CPI-ML, bitterly opposed to the BJP, has three members.

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Lalu-Shahabuddin audio tape: RJD, JDU cry conspiracy; BJP calls out Nitish

Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) has called the audio tape of a conversation between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party's jailed leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, which was aired by an English news channel on Saturday, a conspiracy to destabilise the state government. (Read more)

The RJD, for its part, has alleged that the recording is doctored and that it is ready to face any kind of investigation. The RJD and JDU are part of the alliance government in the state.  

RJD, JDU see BJP's hand behind 'conspiracy'

RJD leader Manoj Jha accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of scripting a propaganda against Lalu, who he termed as one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarian.

"I find the audio tapes purported and doctored. This is malicious, this is propaganda ruled out by top BJP script writers. We welcome all kind of investigation. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav is one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarian," Jha told ANI.

Condemning the episode, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said, "This is an attempt to destabilise the Bihar government."

BJP gets a new stick to beat Nitish with

The BJP did not waste any time in taking up the issue and attacking the Bihar chief minister, daring him to take action against his alliance partner. (Read more)

Following the airing of the alleged conversation, senior BJP leader and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad targeted both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar at a press conference in the national capital and described it as the "worst form of criminal-political nexus" in the country and the "most tragic day for democracy".

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