NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Sunday the people of his state were a "necessity" for Delhi and the Indian capital "can't run without Bihar".
Speaking at a function in capital, celebrating 100 years of establishment of Bihar as a separate state, Kumar said: "Delhi can't run without Bihar. Biharis are not a burden on Delhi, Biharis are the necessity of Delhi." He advised political parties to respect the Bihari prominence in the political and bureaucratic spheres of the capital along with the four million Biharis who form a sizeable chunk of Delhi's population.
"If Biharis in Delhi stop working for one day, the capital will come to a standstill," he claimed. Following his victory in 2005 elections, Kumar has been credited with the turnaround in the state's fortunes. Widely hailed as the best chief minister in India, Kumar was re-elected in 2010 when his party swept the opposition with a four fifth majority.
According to Kumar, the state was always known as a center of learning and the Bihari students excelled in every field of education, from Indian Administrative Services(IAS) to Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Exams(IIT-JEE). He felicitated 18 people, including former foreign secretary Shyam Sharan, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman U.K. Sinha, with the 'Vishisht Bihari Samman' for excellence in various fields.