Should’ve Been There, Admits Prashant Kishor After No NDA Leader Pays Homage to Slain CRPF Jawan

New Delhi: JDU national vice president Prashant Kishor on Sunday acknowledged that none of the ministers from the Nitish Kumar cabinet were present at the airport to pay homage to CRPF personnel Pintu Kumar Singh, whose was brought to Patna airport on Sunday morning.

Pintu Singh was killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Friday during an anti-terrorist operation.

Kishor tweeted a video on Sunday evening in which the jawan’s kin complained about neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Bihar CM Nitish Kumar being there at the airport to pay homage.

“He’s gone, he’s a martyr now. But ministers are only concerned about remaining in power. That they did not come to pay homage at the airport shows how concerned they are about the country’s soldiers,” the CRPF jawan’s kin can be heard saying in the video clip.

Calling minsters’ absence an “error in judgement”, Kishor wrote along with the video: “We are sorry for the error of judgement on part of those of us who should have been there with you in this hour of grief.”

Not a single minister from Kumar’s cabinet was present at the airport to pay homage to the jawan as all senior leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) seemed to be busy with the rally that was later held in the day and was addressed by PM Modi and the Bihar chief minister.

According to reports, district magistrate Kumar Ravi, senior police officer Garima Mallick, top officers of the Central Reserve Police Force, state Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha and Lok Janshakti Party MP Choudhary Mahboob Ali Kaiser were at the airport to receive Singh’s body.

"It's very unfortunate that chief minister Nitish Kumar did not bother to come to pay his last respect,” NDTV quoted Sanjay Singh, uncle of the CRPF inspector who was from Dhanchakki village in Begusarai, 130 km from Patna.

Two CRPF Inspectors and two officers were killed and five other security personnel injured in the gunfight in the Babagund area of Kralgand in Handwara, Kupwara, on Friday.