Tejas mocks Dal, BJP on special tag
3 min readPatna: Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Wednesday mocked at the JDU and the BJP over their emphasis on special status category for Bihar.
Tejashwi wondered why there was so much hue and cry when the BJP was ruling both at the Centre and in the state. He asked chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to speak on the issue.
“Both the BJP and the JDU boast of the double engine government,” Tejashwi told The Telegraph. “They both pretend to support the demand for special status, but none of them explains what is stopping Bihar from getting this longstanding much-deserved special status and package. Their stand is hilarious.”
A few days back, Rajya Sabha MP and senior JDU leader RCP Singh had said denial of special status category to Bihar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was equivalent to injustice. Later, a few more JDU leaders echoed the same, claiming that Bihar should get the special status category.
“Nitish and Narendra Modi are ruling in Bihar. Nitish and Narendra Modi are ruling at the Centre. So, who are they asking special status category from? Are they demanding it from us or the people of Bihar? If all the conditions favour it then why is this fight going on between the JDU and the BJP? People are not so innocent. Nitish, Sushil Kumar Modi and Ram Vilas Paswan must break their silence,” Tejashwi said.
Tejashwi said the RJD had vociferously raised the demand for a special status after Bihar’s bifurcation, but Nitish stopped then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from making it happen. He accused Nitish of using it as his pet political mileage cow.
“Nitish always raises the issue of special status category to Bihar to raise his own political prospects and forgets it when the pasture is green. We have been raising the demand since 2004, whereas Nitish ji started raising the demand from 2006. Nitish was a minister at the Centre, but never raised the issue nor supported the RJD’s demand for it,” Tejashwi alleged. “I, in fact, am supporting the demand even today, but Nitish has made it a political issue to brand his own image.”
Many JDU leaders claim the party has not forgotten the demand and will keep raising it. But ever since Nitish met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, the topic has become the talk of the town and JDU and BJP leaders are sharing their own thoughts on the demand.
Tejashwi said it was a golden opportunity for the JDU to get special status for Bihar, as the same party was in power at the Centre and in the state.
“Narendra Modi had promised during the Purnea and Muzaffapur rallies that Bihar would get special status,” Tejashwi said. “I am going to play those speeches in public soon to show how he made a promise and forgot all about it,” Tejashwi said adding that JDU and BJP leaders do not have the moral power to put pressure on the Centre the way Andhra Pradesh did.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
