Patna: The Centre on Monday ruled out the possibility of granting special category status to Bihar, prompting BJP’s major ally JD (U) to downplay it by saying that they still wanted the status for the state but if it was ‘technically’ not possible, a special package was also acceptable.
RJD Jumps Fast To Criticize CM Nitish Kumar
RJD promptly jumped at the opportunity to attack Nitish and demand his resignation from the post of chief minister for his failure to procure the special status. Lalu told reporters, “Nitish Kumar had said he would ensure Bihar gets special status. He should now resign. We will get special status for Bihar at all costs. The Centre has to give special status to Bihar.”
RJD commented in ‘X’, “Modi government has said in Parliament that Bihar will not get special status. Nitish Kumar and JD (U) can now comfortably enjoy power at the Centre and can also carry on with its hypocritical politics on special status.”
About The Origin Of The Debate
The debate was ignited when Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed an MP in a written reply that the possibility of granting special status to Bihar was ruled out. A political analyst said that it was intriguing why the Modi government had flatly rejected Nitish’s demand for special status in Bihar when the support of JD (U) 12 MPs was important for the government`s stability. Only time will tell how it will impact the BJP-JD (U) relationship in the future, he added.
Meanwhile, former professor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Pushpendra Kumar Singh said that as was the case in his previous two tenures, PM Modi continued to be the power centre and was taking decisions that suited him the best. He said that the central government`s financial resources had grown tremendously as the RBI had doubled the dividend payout to it and GST collections had risen significantly, but it wanted to help only the top 10 industrialists of the country, overlooking the interest of backward states.
“I am not very enthusiastic about the Centre granting huge financial packages for Bihar. I also have a view that the Centre can still give special status to Bihar by forming a Group of Ministers or by asking NITI Aayog to study its feasibility.”
