Patna, June 24: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today sought to bring back into the limelight the debate over special status by urging the state’s representative on the central panel to present Bihar’s case forcefully or quit the panel if his words were not heard.
The issue of special status has been Nitish’s pet subject for much of his second term in office as chief minister, but was drowned in the din over the bitter political divorce between the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP.
The chief minister today made it clear that special status remained one of his chief goals.
Speaking at a function to mark the 77th birthday of former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, Nitish urged economist Shaibal Gupta, who is part of the Raghuram Rajan committee set up by the Centre to look into backwardness of states, to put forth Bihar’s case in a convincing manner.
Pointing to Gupta, who was seated in the front row of the planetarium auditorium, the chief minister said: “Earlier, the central government rejected our concern at the inter-ministerial meeting but later it formed a special committee to frame new criteria for backwardness. One of the members is sitting over here, Shaibal Gupta. I want you to put our case strongly, the committee is not just for holding meetings.”
“If your words are not heard, I think there is no good reason to continue on the committee. There is a lot of expectation from the people and it is related to everyone’s emotion,” Nitish added, pointedly telling Gupta, the member-secretary of Asian Development Research Institute (Adri), that he had a “historic responsibility” to present Bihar’s case strongly.
Gupta sought to downplay Nitish’s remarks, saying they were made in a “lighter vein”. “Nitishji said those words in a lighter vein and not in a serious way. There is no breakdown in the committee. Nitishji said he trusts me a lot and wants to get the things done. Nothing more than that and once again, I must tell you that he said it in a lighter vein,” Gupta told The Telegraph.
Besides Gupta and chairman Rajan, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, the committee has as members Indian Statistical Institute professor Bharat Ramaswami, Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor Najeeb Jung, Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Niraja Gopal Jayal and Planning Commission adviser Tuhin Pandey.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.
Nitish, who has said he is willing to explore the possibilities of a federal front, also sought to reach out beyond Bihar’s borders. “To push Bihar ahead, the Centre has to give special treatment to us. If other states have a case for getting special status, they should also be given,” he said.
The Centre recently turned down Odisha’s demand for special status. Taking a cue from Nitish, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik held a rally in Delhi to amplify his demand for special status closer to the corridors of power. Naveen is one of the chief ministers with whom the options of a federal front are being discussed.
