Nitish Kumar launches 'take back your words' campaign over PM Modi's DNA barb

Patna: Escalating his war of words with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his DNA barb, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday announced launch of “take back your words” campaign, saying the PM’s remark was an “insult” to the people of the state. A day after the Prime Minister mounted a scathing attack on the “politically opportunistic” JD(U)-RJD alliance in Bihar, Kumar announced on Twitter the launch of the ‘shabad wapsi’ campaign under which 50 lakh people would send their samples to the Prime Minister for DNA test. [caption id=“attachment_2386060” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  Nitish Kumar. AFP[/caption] The Bihar Chief Minister said his party would organise 4-5 “Swambhiman (self-respect) rallies” across the state to put pressure on Modi to take back his DNA remark, which he said, had “hurt” people in the state. The first rally under the series would be held in Patna on August 29, he said in an another tweet. Addressing BJP’s first “Parivartan rally” at Muzaffarpur on July 25, the PM had made the “DNA” comment against Kumar. The Chief Minister said the campaign had been decided as “inspite of repeated pleas Modiji hadn’t retracted his derogatory remarks on our DNA.” Describing the PM’s DNA remark as “an insult of people of Bihar”, he said since the masses are supreme in a democracy “now they would decide the issue.” Kumar said they would knock every door in the state as part of this campaign. In September as part of second phase of the campaign, 50 lakh samples for DNA test along with signatures of people would be sent to the PM, he added. The DNA barb has triggered war of words between NDA and secular alliance, pitted against each other in coming Bihar poll. While Kumar and RJD President Lalu Prasad were trying to link it with “pride” of the state, the BJP and its allies have said the PM had talked about Kumar’s “political DNA” marked with incidents of “betraying” friends and allies. PTI