PATNA: Four days after India lost the Cricket World Cup final against Australia,
Rashtriya Janata Dal
(RJD) president Lalu Prasad on Thursday blamed it on Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
describing him as an “inauspicious person”, inviting bitter reactions from the BJP which termed the former Bihar CM as
“ashubh
” instead for his party, family, and himself.
“Narendra Modi is an inauspicious person.
We lost (the world cup final) because of him,” Lalu told the media in Delhi on Thursday, describing the whole thing as “very unfortunate”. “
Narendra Modi ashubh aadmi hai…iske wazah se hua
,” Lalu said on being asked to comment over India’s defeat in the world cup final. Strangely, India had reached the final winning all the 10 matches against various teams.
The PM was one of the dignitaries who was present in the crowded Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad to watch the world cup final. He even visited the Indian dressing room to console the cricket team after their crushing defeat at the hands of Australia. In a video which went viral, the PM was seen consoling the entire team, and shaking and hugging the team members who looked dejected and disappointed after the defeat.
This was not the first time that Lalu had made such remarks against the PM. In September 2015—a little over a year after he had taken oath as the PM, Lalu had slammed Modi for rainfall deficit in Bihar. “Modi’s visit to Bihar was a curse. Modi’s feet are inauspicious. There has been no rainfall in Bihar after Modi visited the state. Millions of farmers are worried,” Lalu had alleged.
Lalu again took a dig at
PM Modi
in April 2016, squarely blaming him for disasters the country was facing. “
PM Modi ne ashubh samay me shapath liya. Isliye desh me apda ki bharmar ho gayi hai
(PM Modi took oath at an inauspicious time leading to an increase in the number of disasters in the country),” was how Lalu had told reporters in Patna.
The BJP reacted bitterly to Lalu’s comments towards the PM and called him a “sinistrous” instead. “Lalu himself is an inauspicious person. It’s because of his greed that many of his family members got implicated in various cases, Janata Dal lost its existence and his own RJD lost the national status. What was worse, Lalu himself spent most of his time in jail. So, who one is inauspicious?” asked BJP’s state media in-charge Manoj Sharma. He added that Lalu has proved to be sinistrous for his party, family and himself.
Sharma also expressed surprise over the way Lalu joined the company of CM Nitish Kumar whom he once called as “
ashubh
” when the latter ate biscuits during the solar eclipse. Lalu had reacted when Nitish ate biscuits at Taregana near Patna during the solar eclipse on October 9, 2011, to dispel the myth that consuming food during an eclipse invites harm.
RJD ally, JD(U) too blamed PM Modi for the humiliating defeat in the world cup final. “PM Modi got the cricket stadium named after Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel in his own name and the whole country had to suffer for this,” JD(U)’s state chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar alleged on Thursday.
