A sensational disclosure by Bihar’s deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi about party national president Amit Shah has set off political storm in the state. Modi claimed in his speech that BJP national chief Shah, also the Union home minister, had once paid bribes to the officials to get his works done apparently when the Congress government was in power in Bihar.

The revelation came to the fore after RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted the video of Modi’s speech on Friday, generating fiery debates on social media. It appears that the Deputy CM delivered his speech in Patna on 16 November.

In the video, the deputy chief minister is heard telling the crowd how he was hugely surprised to know the reason behind Shah’s first visit to Bihar.

सुशील मोदी का अमित शाह जी के बारे में सनसनीखेज खुलासा। कहा, अमित जी रिश्वत ले-देकर वर्षों पहले बिहार में काम कराते थे.

रिश्वत लेना-देना दोनों अपराध है लेकिन सुशील मोदी CM नीतीश कुमार के इशारे पर खुलेआम अपने अध्यक्ष की चाणक्य खूबियों का बखान कर अच्छे से उनकी मानहानि कर रहे है. pic.twitter.com/Z7PPQWu5DY

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) November 22, 2019

“Maine ek bar Amit Shahji se puchha ki aap pehli bar Bihar kab aaye the? Tab unhone bataya ki 25 saal pahle wo vyapar karate the, pipe ka business karate the. Unhone yahan par ek vibhag mein pipe ki supply ki thi lekin uske bakaye ke bhugtan nahin ho pa raha tha jiske liye wo Bihar aaye the (I had once asked Amit Shah about his first visit to Bihar. Then he told me how he was in the business of supplying pipes about 25 years ago and he had to come to Patna to get his pending dues cleared),” Modi is heard saying in his speech.

If Modi is to be believed, Shah had then supplied pipes to the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) in Bihar but his dues were not getting cleared. “When I pressed further if his dues were ultimately cleared, he replied in the affirmative. When I asked to explain how, he said he adopted the available route prevalent during the Congress regime and that got his entire dues cleared,” Modi claimed in his speech. In the end, Modi goes on to state that none has questioned the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led BJP governments wherever they are in power.

Tejashwi has mounted frontal attack on Modi for his public revelation about how Shah had paid bribe to officials to get his works done. “Both accepting and taking bribes are unlawful acts but Sushil Modi is publicly exposing his own party chief by highlighting his ‘Chanakaya-like’ qualities,” tweeted Tejashwi who served as the deputy chief minister in the previous Grand Alliance government. He alleged that Modi is doing all that at the instance of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

What Tejashwi wants to say is that both Kumar and Modi find themselves completely sidelined by the BJP. While the BJP has gone it alone in Jharkhand, spurning the JD-U request to enter into alliance, Modi has been kept out of the of BJP’s list of 40 star campaigners for Jharkhand.

“Sushil Modi is a classic politician. We should thank him for the way he exposed his own party chief Amit Shah in a bid to highlight his features. Amit Shah must clear his stand over this issue since both taking and giving bribe is a crime,” remarked state Congress spokesperson Prem Chandra Mishra.