Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday blamed the reluctance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the Manipur issue in Parliament for the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition in Lok Sabha.
The JD(U) supreme leader, whose party is likely to support the motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, also claimed that recent political statements of Modi smacked of nervousness in the BJP-led NDA and it was caused by opposition parties coming together to form the new coalition known by the acronym INDIA.
What has happened in Manipur, the way women were stripped and paraded naked, is appalling. The Centre should have come out with a statement. This is what parties in the opposition have been demanding in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Kumar told reporters here. However, the government has maintained a deafening silence. This was not acceptable (to the opposition) and hence they have brought the no-confidence motion, said the JD(U) leader who pulled out of the NDA last year.
Kumar, who had hosted the first meeting of opposition parties here last month, scoffed at Modi's mockery of the acronym INDIA and the averment that the NDA will return to power after next year's Lok Sabha polls. The name (INDIA) was agreed upon by all parties at the meeting in Bengaluru earlier this month, said Kumar, who also said they will keep saying these out of "nervousness".
He also taunted Modi for convening a meeting of the NDA on the very day the opposition conclave was held in Bengaluru. Where is the NDA he is talking about? This was the name given to a coalition formed during the time of the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee whom the current dispensation seems to have forgotten. I was in alliance with these people from 2017 to 2022 and not a single time did they bother to call an NDA meeting, said Kumar.
Notably, among the reasons the JD(U) leader had cited to defend his exit from the NDA included the BJP's refusal to agree to his request that his party, then the largest ally, be given representation in the Union council of ministers proportional to its strength. Kumar had also accused the BJP of having inducted the then JD(U) president RCP Singh into the Union cabinet without seeking his approval.
Singh was later denied another term in Rajya Sabha, which caused him to resign, and he left the party following accusations that he was trying to split the JD(U) at the BJP's behest. The former IAS officer joined the BJP a couple of months ago. The JD(U) supreme leader also pointed out The NDA, as it stands today, comprises many parties which nobody has heard of.
The chief minister, who was speaking on the sidelines of a function organised on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas also accused the current dispensation at the Centre of trying to alter history and belittle the contributions of Mahatma Gandhi. But they will not be able to change history. They will become history, asserted Kumar, saying: I am glad that my efforts to forge opposition unity are bearing fruit. Hopefully, we will finalise modalities like seat-sharing arrangements in the near future.
The CM was also asked about media speculations that cancellation, by his office, of several transfers in the revenue and land reforms department could trigger a spat with the RJD, the largest constituent of the state's ruling Mahagathbandhan since its national general secretary Alok Mehta held the portfolio.
However, Kumar clarified that the move was in line with the government's policy that no transfers be ordered unless the personnel concerned had either completed a three-year tenure or there were complaints against the official. Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD's de facto leader, who stood beside Kumar, smiled in approval.
To a query about the expansion of his cabinet in which the RJD and the Congress, the third largest ally, expect to have some more faces, Kumar said, It will take place at an appropriate time. When pressed further, he pointed towards Yadav, saying He will inform you when the time comes. Yadav waved at the journalists, as he walked away along with his boss. (PTI)
