As the Centre has ruled out the possibility of special status for Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has mocked the alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U).
Months before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) dumped the Opposition’s INDIA bloc and joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in January. They contested the Lok Sabha elections together and, as the BJP failed to win a majority of its own, it is with coalition partners like JD(U) and Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) support, that the NDA formed the government.
It was understood that the Centre granting the special status to Bihar was the basis of the alliance. Now that the Centre has ruled out the special status, the RJD has mocked the BJP-RJD alliance. RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar handed the people of Bihar a toy in the name of special status.
‘JD(U) has prostrated in front of BJP’
Mocking the JD(U) after the Centre denied granting the special status to Bihar, RJD chief Lalu said that the JD(U) has prostrated in front of the BJP with the promise of special package in place of special status.
“Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar handed Bihar the toy of ‘special status’ very shamelessly. If not special status, then give special package or anything at all. The JD(U) has prostrated in front of the BJP by saying this. Nitish Kumar should immediately resign. He had said that he would get Bihar the special status but the Centre has now refused,” said Lalu in a statement shared by RJD on X (formerly Twitter).
In a separate post on X, the RJD said the JD(U) can now keep reaping the fruits of alliance of BJP now that the have done the politics of hypocrisy on the issue of special status to Bihar.
What did Centre say on special status?
The Centre has said that, as per the policy in place, no case is made for granting special status to Bihar.
In response to JD(U) MP Ramprit Mandal’s question, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that National Development Council (NDC) had laid down certain features for a status to be given special status:
(i) hilly and difficult terrain,(ii) low population density and/or sizeable share of tribal population,(iii) strategic location along borders with neighboring countries,(iv) economic and infrastructural backwardness and(v) non-viable nature of State finances.
Citing a decision from 2012 when Bihar had requested special status, Chaudhary said that a government panel that deliberated on the request found that no case for special status was made out.
“Earlier, the request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which submitted its Report on 30th March, 2012. The IMG came to the finding that based on existing NDC criteria, the case for Special Category Status for Bihar is not made out,” said Chaudhary.
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As Centre rules out special status for Bihar, RJD mocks of JD(U)-BJP alliance
