BJP workers helped people amid Covid surge, some were active only on Twitter: J P Nadda

BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday took a veiled dig at opposition leaders such as RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, saying that "our workers" were out on the streets helping people distressed by the recent Covid-19 surge, unlike "many others who remained active only on Twitter".

Nadda, who attended the BJP's state executive meeting in Bihar over a video conference, also said that the saffron party members live by the motto 'seva hi sangathan hai' (service being equivalent to organisation)

Yadav often takes to Twitter to criticise the Nitish Kumar government.

The 31-year-old opposition leader, who keeps facing accusations of absenteeism, returned to the state last week after spending close to a month in the national capital, where, he claimed, he was looking after his ailing father Lalu Prasad, the RJD national president.

"We live by the motto of service being equivalent to organisation. Our workers helped the needy during the second wave without any trepidation. Many others chose to remain active only on Twitter, quarantining themselves at safe places," said Nadda.

The BJP leader who relishes his connections with the Bihar capital, where he was born and spent his early years, also reiterated the need for reminding the younger generation of excesses committed during the Emergency imposed by the Congress government and the lawlessness that kept Bihar in news when Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi ruled the state for 15 years together.

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"During Emergency, a mere visit to Jayaprakash Narayan's house in Kadam Kuan could invite arrest. Our comrades like Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Union minister) faced untold brutalities while in jail. Youngsters of today do not know all this. They should be told about these things, about the sacrifices our generation made for preserving democracy," said Nadda, who was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s.

"They must also be reminded of the days under Lalu, when people feared to venture out after sunset and medical practitioners and professionals had begun to migrate out of Bihar fearing the rampant extortion rackets and kidnappings for ransom," he said.

Notably, the RJD and the Congress are old allies and have shared power in the state as well as at the Centre.

Mocking the agitations against the new farm laws, the BJP president said, "Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar had shared an anecdote that when asked to point out which provisions they find objectionable, the protesters could lay their fingers on none. But they have launched a movement."

He also urged party leaders to apprise the common public of the work done by the Narendra Modi government for the betterment of farmers, small- and medium-scale industries and every section of the society.

He exhorted party workers to put in efforts to ensure the success of the universal vaccination programme against Covid-19 and work with the motto "mera booth- corona mukt, vaccination yukt" (my booth free from corona, fully vaccinated).