Lalu calls PM Dhritarashtra over his silence on Dadri lynching

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad took a potshot at Narendra Modi on Monday calling him a Dhritarashtra who is not only "blind" but also "deaf and dumb" and a "coward", as the chorus of criticism against the prime minister's "silence" on Dadri lynching grew louder.

Prasad, a former Bihar chief minister and Union minister, also strongly defended his controversial comments on the beef row, asserting he had merely said that some Hindus too ate beef when they went outside the country.

Sharpening his attack at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the reservation issue at a poll rally, Prasad also showed a book of RSS patriach M S Golwalkar to allege that the saffron outfit has been against quota from the very beginning.

Against the backdrop of Modi not having made a statement yet over the horrific lynching of a man in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh over rumours of alleged beef consumption, Prasad said he observed silence when there was a need to speak. "Yah Dhritarashtra andar se darpok hai. Dikhawe ka chilata hai. Jab bolne ki jarurat hoti hai to maun dharan kar chup ke baith jata hai (this Dhritarshtra is a coward from inside. He shouts only as a show off. When there is a need to speak he observes silence and sits hiding somewhere)," he said.

"Hastinapur me baitha kalyugi Dhritarashtra na kewal andha hai balki goonga aur bahra bhi hai. Duryodhan ko samaj torne ke liye khuli chhot hai (the Dhritarashtra sitting inHastinapur is not only blind but also deaf and dumb. There isopen permission for Duryodhans to break the society)," the RJD chief said in tweets, pointing to statements of BJP leaders inthe wake of Dadri incident.

Dhritarashtra, a mythological character in the Hindu epic 'Mahabharata', is a blind king.

Addressing the rally after his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav filed nomination from Mahua assembly seat in Vaishali district, Prasad showed the book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ written by M S Golwalkar which, he said, stressed that reservation should be provided on economic basis.

"The present leadership of RSS is following the thought of its guru (Golwalkar)," he said referring to recent comment of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat over need to review reservation.

The BJP has been taking orders from RSS and has no guts to defy the thinking of its ideological parent (RSS), he said. The election meeting at Gandhi maidan in Mahua, about 30 km from Hajipur in Vaishali district, was also attended by Prasad's younger son Tejaswi Yadav, who is in fray from Raghopur seat in the same district.

Earlier, Tej Pratap Yadav filed his nomination for Mahua seat in front of Sub Divisional Magistrate Mumtaz Alam. Tej Pratap Yadav is pitted against sitting MLA and now a Hindustani Awam Morcha nominee Ravindra Rai.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been mum on the incident