NCP status dare to Nitish
2 min read
Patna: The Nationalist Congress Party attacked chief minister Nitish Kumar, daring him to declare his stand on special category status to Bihar, a day before staging a dharna for the demand.
“Nitish has been demanding special status for Bihar since 2006 and a resolution about it was passed by the state legislature. However, the demand seems to have been shelved. Now that his Janata Dal United is with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, he should declare his stand on special status,” Katihar MP Tariq Anwar, the NCP’s general secretary said.
The NCP also asked the BJP to come clean.
“The BJP-led government at the Centre is ignoring the demand. Nitish should take a strong line, show courage and pressure the Centre for it. All opposition parties in Bihar, including the NCP, will support him. The BJP is silent about the state’s demand and should make its stand clear,” Anwar asserted.
The JDU’s recent demand for the category, Anwar said, was just politics because NDA is in power in the state and the Centre. He said the state didn’t need to demand but accord it. “Even if any rule needs to be changed, the NDA could easily do it. Instead, it’s indulging in politics over Bihar’s future,” the MP said.
The NCP general secretary also said that the controversy over Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s photograph at Aligarh Muslim University had been raked up by the BJP in view of the Karnataka Assembly elections.
“The AMU is a central university and comes under the Union HRD ministry. The President is its chancellor. The central government could easily change Jinnah’s picture by bring an ordinance,” Anwar said, adding that Indian Muslims didn’t have anything to do with Jinnah and have been influenced by freedom fighters like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Asif Ali, Batukeshwar Dutt and Maulana Mazhrul Haque.
“Indian Muslims chose India as their country in 1947 and those who followed Jinnah went to Pakistan. I condemn the BJP for raking up the controversy to reap political benefits,” Anwar said.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
