Patna: “Katta” (a slang for a locally-made illegal firearm) has once again come into sharp focus in the ongoing campaign for Bihar assembly election after a purported viral video showed a minor saying that he would “carry a katta after RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav become chief minister”.
The political firestorm has erupted a day before the first phase of election will be held in 121 assembly constituencies spread over 18 districts of the state.
The video from Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav’s rally held in Samastipur district`s Mohiuddinnagar constituency showed the child saying that if “Tejashwi bhaiya” returned to power, he would roam around carrying a katta (country-made gun).
Reacting sharply to the viral video, Bihar BJP commented, “RJD's Tejaswi Education Model! In their schools, every single child learns "k" means katta. RJD and violence are so intertwined that even a small child knows that when RJD comes to power, both the pistol and extortion businesses will kick off. There was Tejaswi's election rally in Mohiuddin Nagar, Samastipur, see for yourself what a child was being taught there.”
NDA leaders are using the word, “katta” to target the main opposition party, RJD, and its alleged jungle raj in Bihar when it was in power from 1990 to 2005. NDA is trying to revive the memory of jungle raj at a time when RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, is making concerted efforts to ensure that his party finally shed the ‘jungle raj’ tag by repositioning it around a platform of job creation and good governance.
While addressing an election rally in Samastipur, Tejashwi had said, "Even if my shadow does wrong, it will be punished".
The ‘katta’ found its entry into the election prominently after the Prime Minister during his recent election rallies asserted that “Congress never wanted Tejashwi to be declared the alliance’s CM face but was pressured into doing so. The RJD secured it by placing a katta on the head of the Congress. They have learnt their lessons in the school of jungle raj. Such elements can never do any good for Bihar.”
Although both NDA and INDIA bloc heavily depended on freebies, the entry of ‘katta’ into the electioneering may put Tejashwi on defensive due to the RJD`s questionable track record on law and order when there was a Lalu-Rabri regime, remarked a political analyst Indrajit Singh
