There may be crime in Bihar, but no ‘apraadh’: Chief minister Samrat Choudhary

Bihar chief minister Samrat Choudhary on Tuesday said there could be some crime in the state, but no “apraadh” (which also means crime), a comment that elicited jibes from the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary made the remarks at an event organised by the National Highways Authority of India in Delhi.

(Santosh Kumar/ Hindustan Times)“Hamare yahan koi apraadh nahi hai. Apraadh ka concept hi khatam ho chuka hai. Crime ho sakte hain, lekin apraadh nahi, koi apraadhi nahi hai (There is no crime here in Bihar. The very concept of crime has been eliminated.

There may be a crime, but there is no ‘apraadh’. There are no criminals),” Choudhary said. The statement made at an event in Delhi, organised by state-owned NHAI, left many pondering over what he meant, with RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav asking whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a ‘supaari’ (contract) to Choudhary for destroying Bihar.

Yadav, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, shared on X a video clip of the remark made by Choudhary. In the post, Yadav also wondered whether IAS and IPS officers felt honoured or humiliated while working with the CM.

Yadav said such a self-contradictory statement by a CM may have left the IAS/IPS officers sitting on the dais bewildered and “one can wonder, whether the bureaucracts working with the CM feel honoured or humiliated”. When Union minister Chirag Paswan was asked about Choudhary’s remark, he refused to be drawn into the controversy but credited the CM with having “a clear vision on crime control”.

“I believe that being the CM as well as the HM, he must have facts and figures to back his claim,” said Paswan, who heads LJP (Ram Vilas).