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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Madan Kumar | TNN

JD(U) comes out with slogan of 'Shikshit Kumar - Shikshit Bihar' to counter RJD's phrase of 'Tejashwi Bihar'

PATNA: The ongoing rift between JD(U) and RJD, the two leading allies of the seven -party Mahagathbandhan, came into open on Tuesday after JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar came out with a new slogan ‘Shikshit Kumar – Shikshit Bihar’ in response to the Bihar education minister and RJD leader Dr Chandra Shekhar’s recent slogan of ‘Shikshit Bihar - Tejashwi Bihar.’

The education minister, who is already in controversy due to his recent remarks on certain stanzas of Ramcharitmanas, on Monday came out with a new phrase ‘Shikshit Bihar – Tejashwi Bihar’ (Educated Bihar – Radiant Bihar). The minister posted the ‘Tejashwi Bihar’ phrase on his verified Twitter handle while tweeting news of the education department.

But as Tejashwi is also the name of RJD leader and Bihar’s Deputy CM, opposition BJP alleged that the education minister came out with such a slogan with an aim to please his party’s de facto leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. The minister’s tweet caused an upheaval in the state’s political circles as it was widely considered that the tweet had been made to promote the RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Reacting over the education minister’s ‘Tejashwi Bihar’ slogan, the JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar, who is considered very close to CM Nitish Kumar, on Tuesday posted a series of three tweets in which he not only compared the education status of the Lalu-Rabri government with Nitish Kumar's regime, but also uploaded data of the education sector before and after 2005. The 15-year rule of Lalu- Rabri ended in 2005 and Nitish Kumar came into power in November same year.

Tagging pictures of Nitish with all three tweets written in Hindi, the JD(U) MLC, while making a sarcastic remark on the education minister’s Monday tweet, said, “Twitter Ka Nahi, Kaam Ka Bihar. Shikshit Kumar, Shikshit Bihar. Just 3.74% of the state’s annual budget was spent on the education sector in FY 2003-04 (During RJD regime) while it rose to 19.3% in FY 2021-22 (during Nitish regime).

By using the pun of ‘Shikshit Kumar’, the JD(U) MLC also tried to draw a comparison between well-educated Nitish Kumar who passed B Tech from the erstwhile Bihar College of Engineering (and now, NIT-Patna) and Tejashwi who is not even matriculate.

“In 1996, the teacher-student ratio in higher institutions was 1:90 (one teacher for every 90 students). In 2005, it reached 1:122 and in 2015-16, it was 1:36.” Neeraj said in another tweet, quoting the data of All India Higher Education Survey.

Reacting over the JD(U) leader’s comparison of Lalu-Rabri regime with Nitish regime, State BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand on Tuesday said that both ‘Tejashwi model’ and ‘Kumar Model’ of education are bogus models. Both the RJD leader Lalu Prasad and CM Nitish Kumar are equally responsible for sharp deterioration in the standard of education in Bihar, he said.

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