Tejashwi Yadav slams Sushil Modi for attending Jagannath Mishra's book launch, asks if only 'backward thieves' guilty for BJP

Patna: Senior RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday slammed Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for taking part in the book launch programme of former chief minister Jagannath Mishra who has been convicted in fodder scam cases along with his father Lalu Prasad. In a statement, the former Deputy CM questioned Modi’s presence at the function held here on Monday pointing out that Mishra was granted bail to undergo treatment at the Medanta hospital in Gurugram. [caption id=“attachment_4331261” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav . PTI[/caption] Prasad, who suffers from multiple ailments, had been granted provisional bail by the Jharkhand High Court in May last year. After its expiry on 30 August, he surrendered before a CBI court in Ranchi and his subsequent pleas for a regular bail have been declined by the high court. Yadav highlighted that Modi was one of the petitioners on whose PIL the Patna High Court had handed over the investigation into the fodder scam cases to the CBI and questioned whether he had begun to consider Mishra above board since his son Nitish Mishra was a vice-president of the BJP’s state unit. In a deft play of the caste card, Yadav also peppered his statement with references to Mishra with the prefix ‘Pandit’ (Brahmin) and asked whether “only Dalits and backwards thieves are thieves” for Modi. “BJP is a corrupt and casteist party and whoever is associated with it is deemed to be Raja Harishchandra, like our Srijan uncle,” the RJD heir apparent remarked in an oblique reference to alleged involvement of close relatives of Modi in the Srijan scam involving the fraudulent withdrawal of money from Bhagalpur treasury. At the launch of the book “Bihar badhkar rahega” (Bihar will march forward), former president Pranab Mukherjee was also present.