Nitish Kumar said Ram Manohar Lohia first started -Swachh Abhiyaan- (File)
Taking aim at the centre's flagship 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that it was "actually first prominently raised" by veteran socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia in the 1950's.
"Swachchta - which is being talked about now - was first prominently raised by Ram Manohar Lohia. He was the first leader to stress on cleanliness," he said.
"He once told Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that if you build toilets in every village and town, I will stop opposing you," Mr Kumar - who calls himself a student of Mr Lohia - said, while narrating a conversation between political rivals Mr Lohia and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
"He (Mr Lohia) told Jawaharlal Nehru that if you build toilets in every village and town, I will stop opposing you. He said it was a curse on everybody that women had to go for open defecation," he said.
The chief minister said that Bihar had its own cleanliness campaign, and it was named "Lohia Swachh Bihar" in recognition of the leader's contributions.
"It was Lohia who first brought a no-confidence motion against the Nehru government by getting the entire opposition to rally behind him," Mr Kumar said while praising his contributions in promoting socialism in India after independence.
He said Mr Lohia's message of Sapt Kranti - or seven revolutions - against social injustices remained relevant decades after his death and it was the chief minister's personal guiding philosophy.
"This is our principle, our ideology, on which we try to move forward," he said.
"Independence does not mean only the right to vote, rather everybody shall understand the meaning of freedom and work to maintain harmony in society," he added.