New Delhi: A day after an audiotape of a conversation between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party’s jailed leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, was made public, the political outfit on Sunday dubbed the tape as doctored, while its ally, Janata Dal (United) said that it was an attempt to destabilize the government of Bihar.
RJD leader Manoj Jha accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of scripting a propaganda against Lalu, who he termed as one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarians.
“I find the audio tapes purported and doctored. This is malicious, this is propaganda ruled out by top BJP script writers. We welcome all kind of investigation. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav is one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarian,” Jha said.
Condemning the episode, JD(U) leader K.C Tyagi said, “This is an attempt to destabilize the Bihar government.”
The Republic, the newly-launched news channel aired an audio clip of Lalu having a conversation with jailed mafia don, Mohammad Shahabuddin yesterday. It played an alleged recorded conversation which it claimed took place between Lalu Prasad and his convicted MP.
Dubbing the incident of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav conversing with his party’s jailed former MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin as “shocking”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said it is appalling to know that a former state chief and a cabinet minister is taking orders from a criminal.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said the revelation has brought down Yadav’s reputation in a serious way.
“It is shocking that a person, who has been a Chief Minister and a union minister, is talking to a criminal, a murder who has been sent to jail. It is shocking that he is taking orders from him. This has brought down the image of Lalu Yadav in a very serious way,” said Swamy.
Meanwhile, another BJP leader Shaina NC questioned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar‘s silence on the issue and urged the people of the state to franchise their votes in the future cautiously.
“Isn’t it shocking that you have a leader like Lalu Prasad Yadav who is talking to a underworld don who is in jail. And then you have Nitish Kumar absolutely silent and not even commenting is this the ideology of Lalu Prasad ji, if it is then I think people of Bihar will well be aware of their future electoral choices,” said NC.
A news channel yesterday aired an audio clip of Lalu having a conversation with jailed Shahabuddin. It played a recorded conversation which it claimed took place between Lalu Prasad and his convicted MP.
Meanwhile, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s reaction was clearly displayed on his Twitter handle,
BJP&sponsored media doing propaganda setting to malign image of all prominent opposition leaders e.g Mayawati,Kejriwal,RG, Mamata,Lalu etc
— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) April 10, 2017