Patna: The invite from the country's top business school, IIM-A, to two top Bihar politicians - Railways Minister Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has virtually triggered a slanging match between them.
Lalu had on Thursday questioned the "ability" of Nitish, a trained engineer, to address 'Confluence 2006', a global event organised by the premier B-school to which the Bihar Chief Minister has been invited.
On Friday, Nitish ridiculed the Railway Minister's claim of having brought a turnaround in the largest public sector undertaking.
"Lalu is reaping the benefits of steps initiated by me during my stint as railways minister from 2002 to 2005. I am unable to understand how the media said the Indian Railways was running at a loss," Nitish said.
"Indeed, the Railways have improved upon its past performance, but this is due only to the fact that the establishment is being run by officers and not the minister," Nitish remarked when his attention was drawn to a recent comments of Lalu questioning the Chief Minister's ability to lecture IIM-A students.
"What will Nitish tell them? Will he inform them about how the Railways ran into losses during his tenure?" Lalu had asked reporters. Nitish, in turn charged that the Railways under Lalu was neglecting passengers' safety.
"It is just that he has inherited an organised framework (in the Railways) whose success he is claiming as his own," he said. Nitish, however, lauded Lalu's "remarkable success" in getting "positive" media coverage for the Railways' turnaround.
"If a man is getting credit without doing anything, it is indeed a reflection of his management skills," Nitish, who had only a few days ago described Lalu as "the posterboy of the media", said.
Taking another dig at Lalu, the Chief Minister alleged that though the railways minister had also promised help to cowherds, he never delivered it.
"He (Lalu) says the cows and cowherds need help, but never provided it. Now the Bihar government, in association with the Unit Trust of India, has started a micro-pension programme for them," Nitish said.
Around 1,000 participants from 20 top ranking B-schools in Europe, US and the Far East are likely to participate in the event where Kumar has to expound on "Challenges and opportunities in transforming Bihar as a vibrant wealth
creation state."
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