Manjhi may be remembered for foot in mouth quotes - Times of India

PATNA/GAYA: With political observers analysing the pluses and minuses of the nine months long Jitan Ram Manjhi govt, it is tome to have a look at those rather headlines making months albeit for the wrong reasons most of the time. According to activist SB Bhaskar, Manjhi will be remembered for what he called 'foot in mouth quotes'. The activist reeled off the quotable quotes from Manjhi.

To begin with Manjhi defended the indefensible by justifying his younger son's flirtations with a married woman constable of the BMP. The constable was quietly transferred out of Gaya following the expose in which the VIP son was allegedly caught almost literally with his pants down in a Bodh Gaya hotel. Keeping girl friends at the cost of the legally wedded wife was not wrong per se went the CM's logic.

READ ALSO: Nitish used and then threw away Manjhi, says BJP

If that was not enough, the then CM revealed that he paid a bribe of Rs five thousand to get a Rs 25000 power bill considerably slashed. Though Manjhi did not pay the bribe as CM, he must have been at least an MLA at that point of time and going by the provisions of the Indian Penal code, bribe taking and bribe giving both were punishable offences. As if to live the bribe story all over again, Manjhi made an open offer of ministerial berths to MLAs in lieu of support during the crucial assembly vote.

READ ALSO: I'll continue my fight, says Jitan Ram Manjhi

Manjhi also tried his hand at history by virtually declaring all the non Dalits as aliens. May be borrowing a leaf from the Naxal book, the then CM even threatened to chop off hands of the doctors (Naxalites threaten to reduce height by six inches). The threat has to be understood in the light of the fact that for the better part of his political career, Manjhi has been representing Naxal infested constituencies like Fatehpur, Barachatti and Bodh Gaya.

The icing on the Manjhi cake came with the revelation/confession that cut money reached him as well. No less spicy was Manjhi's description of the night life of the wives of migrant workers.

READ ALSO: Manjhi resigns as Bihar CM ahead of trust vote, says his supporters got death threats

Denouncing the tendency among the 'self righteous' media men including this scribe to judge Manjhi without peeping into his extremely humble origins, former MP and Manjhi sympathiser Shivanand Tiwari said that the beleaguered ex CM deserves some indulgence as the parameters of morality and social conduct set by the elitist sections need not be applied to those having an entirely different socio economic DNA.

Hailing Manjhi, Tiwari said that whatever the Manjhi biters may say, Jitan Ram a Manjhi will for long be remembered as a bold politician who refused to play 'Bharat' on Bihar political stage and assert his own authority in the corridors of power. Manjhi could easily have survived another 8-9 months by playing it safe but he did not and this political courage needs to be saluted, said Tiwari.

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