<p>None of the ministers in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet turned up at the Patna airport on Wednesday to receive the bodies of the Indian soldiers killed by Pakistani troops in the Poonch sector of Jammu & Kashmir. <br /><br /></p>.<p> Adding insult to injury, minister Bhim Singh on Thursday made a bizarre statement. “Did your father or mother go to pay their respects to the soldiers?” he asked a reporter who questioned the government’s insensitive approach towards the martyrs.<br /><br />“Those who join the Army or police, do so to become martyrs. What’s so great about it,” Singh, the rural works minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, said. The statement was made at a time when the four soldiers were being cremated with full state and military honours at Chapra (Saran district), Ara (Bhojpur district) and Maner (Patna). <br /><br />Embarrassed by the minister’s comment, which triggered an outcry, the chief minister asked Singh to tender an apology. Singh later regretted the remark.<br /><br />A deep sense of anger against the ruling party was palpable across the state. This was evident when two ministers, who went to Bhojpur and Maner to attend the cremation of Shambhu Saran Rai and Vijay Kumar Rai respectively, were booed. <br /><br />After the BJP blasted the Nitish Kumar regime for being insensitive towards the soldiers’ families, two more ministers were deputed to Chapra, where Premnath and Raghunandan were cremated with full military honours.<br /><br />“It was shameful that neither the chief minister, nor any of his cabinet colleagues deemed it fit to receive the bodies at Patna airport or pay their last respects,” said former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. <br /><br />The BJP top brass in the state was present at the airport on Wednesday and paid floral tributes to the soldiers.<br /><br />“How can you expect Nitish to be sensitive in such cases? Even earlier, he never visited PMCH or Chapra where 23 children died in the mid-day meal tragedy. Taking a cue from their ‘master’, not a single JD-U minister went to the airport to pay tributes to the ‘real heroes’. <br /><br />And still Nitish shouts from roof-top about Bihar’s asmita (pride) and special status,” said LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who was one the few leaders to attend a funeral.</p>
<p>None of the ministers in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet turned up at the Patna airport on Wednesday to receive the bodies of the Indian soldiers killed by Pakistani troops in the Poonch sector of Jammu & Kashmir. <br /><br /></p>.<p> Adding insult to injury, minister Bhim Singh on Thursday made a bizarre statement. “Did your father or mother go to pay their respects to the soldiers?” he asked a reporter who questioned the government’s insensitive approach towards the martyrs.<br /><br />“Those who join the Army or police, do so to become martyrs. What’s so great about it,” Singh, the rural works minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, said. The statement was made at a time when the four soldiers were being cremated with full state and military honours at Chapra (Saran district), Ara (Bhojpur district) and Maner (Patna). <br /><br />Embarrassed by the minister’s comment, which triggered an outcry, the chief minister asked Singh to tender an apology. Singh later regretted the remark.<br /><br />A deep sense of anger against the ruling party was palpable across the state. This was evident when two ministers, who went to Bhojpur and Maner to attend the cremation of Shambhu Saran Rai and Vijay Kumar Rai respectively, were booed. <br /><br />After the BJP blasted the Nitish Kumar regime for being insensitive towards the soldiers’ families, two more ministers were deputed to Chapra, where Premnath and Raghunandan were cremated with full military honours.<br /><br />“It was shameful that neither the chief minister, nor any of his cabinet colleagues deemed it fit to receive the bodies at Patna airport or pay their last respects,” said former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. <br /><br />The BJP top brass in the state was present at the airport on Wednesday and paid floral tributes to the soldiers.<br /><br />“How can you expect Nitish to be sensitive in such cases? Even earlier, he never visited PMCH or Chapra where 23 children died in the mid-day meal tragedy. Taking a cue from their ‘master’, not a single JD-U minister went to the airport to pay tributes to the ‘real heroes’. <br /><br />And still Nitish shouts from roof-top about Bihar’s asmita (pride) and special status,” said LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who was one the few leaders to attend a funeral.</p>
