PM launches projects worth Rs 13k cr in Bihar; attacks Oppn over SIR, Constitutional Amendment Bill

Gayaji/Begusarai (Bihar), Aug 22 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched projects worth over Rs 13,000 crore in Bihar, where assembly elections are due later this year, and charged the INDIA bloc with "trying to protect infiltrators" and shielding those with corruption taint.

In what could be one of his last tours of the state before polls are announced by the Election Commission, Modi inaugurated projects worth Rs 12,000 crore at Gayaji, and also flagged off a couple of trains, including an Amrit Bharat connecting the central Bihar pilgrimage town to Delhi.

He followed it up with the inauguration of a bridge over the Ganga, built at a cost of more than Rs 1,000 crore, for which he flew to Begusarai district in a helicopter, about 120 km away, taking along Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary.

While he chose not to speak at Simaria in Begusarai, which now stands connected to Mokama on the outskirts of Patna, at Gayaji, the PM flayed the opposition coalition for criticising the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, and opposing the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, ordered in Bihar by the EC, with the claim that it was "helping" the BJP-led NDA.

"We have seen a regrettable situation in which people in seats of power have been running governments from jail, signing files from behind bars, tearing to shreds constitutional propriety," said Modi, in an apparent reference to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Proudly claiming that there was "no taint of corruption" on his 11-year-old government, the PM drew a contrast with the previous Congress regimes, which saw many scams coming to the fore, and the RJD, the corruption of which, while in power in Bihar, "is known even to the man on the street".

"So, we decided to bring in a law that provides for the dismissal of a corrupt chief minister, or even the Prime Minister, if he or she spends 30 days in jail. A lowly clerk, if he is jailed for a short period, is placed under suspension. But when we brought in a stringent law, the RJD, the Congress and the Left were livid. They are angry because they are scared of facing punishment for their own sins," Modi alleged.

Indirectly referring to SIR, he said, "There is one more threat -- that of infiltrators (ghuspaithiye) that our nation faces, which I also spoke about in my Independence Day speech. They cannot be allowed to partake of the resources of our country. I have, therefore, called for a demography mission. But the Congress and the RJD want to protect these infiltrators for the sake of their vote bank politics." The allusion was to one of the stated objectives of SIR being the removal of names of "illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar" from the electoral rolls.

The EC, which has ordered the exercise in Bihar ahead of assembly polls, has made it clear that SIR will be undertaken across the country in due course.

However, the INDIA bloc has been alleging that the exercise in Bihar was aimed at "helping" the BJP-led NDA in assembly polls through wrongful deletion of names of voters.

A statewide 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' on the issue is being taken out by Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Tejashwi Yadav, the INDIA bloc's face in Bihar, and other alliance partners.

The PM also charged the Congress with having been insensitive towards Bihar, alleging that "one of its chief ministers had famously told a public rally that he would not allow immigrants from the state to set foot on the soil of his state".

"And the RJD, their alliance partner, seemed to be in deep slumber," said the PM, targeting the party, which is the BJP's principal rival in Bihar.

Describing Operation Sindoor as "a pledge I took on the soil of Bihar", he said, "Now, the message is loud and clear that no terrorist can escape after striking anywhere on Indian soil. Our missiles will hunt them down to the deepest recesses of the earth (patal lok)".

"Pakistan tried to retaliate, but none of its missiles could hit us. We blew away their missiles like pieces of straw (tinke ki tarah uda diya)," said Modi, who had vowed to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack at a rally in Madhubani district of north Bihar.

At Gayaji, the PM reached the venue in an open vehicle, in a style that has marked his visits to Bihar for the past several months. He waved at the crowds from atop the vehicle, flanked by Kumar, the JD(U) president, and Choudhary, a former state BJP president.

Modi began his speech with a few lines in the local dialect Magahi, and described Gayaji as "the land of Lord Buddha and Lord Vishnu", in an obvious reference to the Vishnupad temple and the nearby international Buddhist pilgrim town of Bodh Gaya.

At Simaria, Modi walked down several paces on the newly constructed bridge and, with one of his hands firmly clasping Kumar's arm, waved at the crowds that stood watching the two leaders from the river's banks. PTI PKD NAC ACD