Centre's 'no' to special status for Bihar evokes cryptic response from Nitish

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday came out with a cryptic response to the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to the state.

Kumar, whose JD (U) is a key ally of the ruling NDA at the Centre, was asked about the Union government's statement in Parliament on Monday.

"You will get to know all things slowly, and slowly (sab kuchh dhire dhire jaan jaaiyega)," the longest-serving CM of the state said, in reply to a volley of questions he faced from journalists at the Bihar Assembly.

Flashing his trademark smile of ambiguity, the veteran leader rushed inside the House, waving at the posse of journalists that stood trying to read his impregnable mind.

Notably, after the Lok Sabha polls in which the BJP fell short of majority, becoming heavily dependent on allies, the JD (U) had 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 "special package and other types of help" and that Bihar could still get a lot from Narendra Modi government.

However, opposition leaders in the state think Bihar has been taken for a ride. Kumar's arch-rival Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, feels that the JD (U) supremo should resign.

Incidentally, Kumar had junked the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, the Bihar prototype of INDIA bloc that he had helped form, in January this year to return to the BJP-led NDA.

The Union government cited an inter-ministerial group report prepared in 2012 to assert in Lok Sabha on Monday that a case for granting special category status to Bihar is not made out.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the monsoon session, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said special category status was granted in the past by the National Development Council (NDC) to some states that were characterised by a number of features necessitating special consideration.

These included hilly and difficult terrain, low population density or sizeable share of tribal population, strategic location along borders with neighbouring countries, economic and infrastructural backwardness and non-viable nature of state finances, he said in reply to a question asked by JD (U) member Rampreet Mandal.

The decision was taken based on an integrated consideration of all the factors listed above and the peculiar situation of a state, the minister said.

"Earlier, the request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which submitted its Report on 30th March 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," the minister said.

The Congress-led UPA was in power at the time.

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 when Kumar launched a massive signature campaign in 2010, when the UPA was in power, and announced support to "any government" that granted special status to the state.