Day after Bihar was denied the special category status, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reacted with a cryptic response as he said things will become clearer gradually. The Janata Dal (United) chief’s response came as leaders of opposition parties protested in the Bihar Assembly against the Centre's refusal to grant special status to the state.
Kumar, whose JD(U) is a key ally of the ruling NDA at the Centre, was asked about the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to the state. "You will get to know all things slowly, and slowly (sab kuchh dhire dhire jaan jaaiyega)," said Kumar, the longest-serving CM of the state.
Speaking to ANI, Kumar further said, "I have continuously spoken for this (special status), I told them as well (NDA). I told them to give us either a special status or a special package...As a follow-up, they have announced aid for a lot of things...We were speaking of special status and a lot of people said that the provision for special status has been done away with much earlier. So, instead of that, aid should be given for helping Bihar. They have now started it."
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Leaders of the RJD, Congress, and the Left reached the House carrying placards with slogans like “shame on the anti-Bihar BJP” on Tuesday.
Notably, after the Lok Sabha polls, in which the BJP fell short of a majority, becoming heavily dependent on allies, the JD(U) held a national executive meeting where a resolution was passed, raising a fresh demand for special status.
Leaders of the JD(U), which has two ministers in the Union government, insist that the resolution also spoke of a "special package and other types of help" and that Bihar could still get a lot from the Narendra Modi government.
Earlier on Monday, Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, said, "Earlier, the request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), which submitted its report on March 30, 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."
Why Does Bihar Want ‘Special Status’?
The demand for special status first for Bihar arose in 2000 when the creation of Jharkhand left the state shorn of its mineral-rich and relatively more urbanised and industrialised areas.
However, the demand became more intense after the findings of the ‘Bihar Caste-based Survey, 2022’, which revealed that nearly one-third of Bihar’s population continues to live in poverty.
In order to rapidly develop Bihar’s infrastructure, create more employment, and boost the economic growth of the state, CM Nitish Kumar has been demanding a special category status. This special status will also let the government take a centralised and focused approach to the development plan of Bihar.