NEW DELHI: Janata Dal (United) leader and spokesman Ali Anwar on Saturday accused the NDA Government at the Centre of betraying the Government of Bihar on the issue of granting it “special status”.
He described the Centre’s decision as an act of “huge injustice” not only to Bihar, but also, to other backward states.
“This is a huge injustice with Bihar and other backward states. And this is also a betrayal and a failure to fulfill a promise. I’m calling it a betrayal and a failure to fulfill a promise because during the last Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in Muzaffarpur and several other of his rallies in Bihar assured that Bihar will be given special privileges, special status, special assistance/package…And beguiled by these promises, people voted for him,” Anwar complained.
He also pointed out that the demand was made by all parties and the proposal was passed ‘unanimously’ by Bihar’s Vidhan Sabha, and added that it had Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) approval as well.
Anwar said that by denying Bihar its right, the Centre had ‘humiliated’ and ‘abused’ Bihar.
“Gadkariji said that casteism was engrained in Bihar’s DNA and Modiji went a step ahead and said that there was something wrong with Nitish Kumar’s DNA. This is not just disrespectful to Nitish Kumar, but also to the whole of Bihar, which has taken it as an insult to themselves. And, they will respond to this during the Vidhan Sabha election,” Anwar told ANI.
He remarked that it was a ‘good thing’ that the government had clarified its stance before Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections, and added that Bihar’s people ‘understand everything’.
On Friday, the Centre had ruled out any special category status for Bihar, saying there was no policy for according such a status to any state anymore.
According to the government, the 14th Finance Commission had not made any distinction between special and general category states in the recommendation of horizontal distribution among the states.