After denying him a Rajya Sabha berth, the Janata Dal (United) has now mounted pressure on its senior leader and union Steel Minister RCP Singh to resign from the Union Cabinet. The JD(U) has also expelled several leaders reportedly for following RCP Singh’s pro-BJP political line.
JD(U) Parliamentary Board chairman Upendra Kushwaha said on Wednesday that Singh should “heed the message” and resign from the Union Cabinet. Singh is a member of the Rajya Sabha and his tenure ends on July 7. As per the rules, a Minister can occupy the post for a maximum period of six months unless he or she gets elected to either House of Parliament.
Kuswaha’s comment is seen as yet another sign of growing rift between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP. Singh is seen close to the BJP leadership. He and his supporters have been regularly praising the Modi Government and its policies.
“There is no technical problem as such if he (Singh) continues in his chair. But if he heeds the message and reads the political situation, it would be nice if he resigns,” Kushwaha told reporters. The JD(U) will have no representation in the Union Cabinet when RCP Singh comes out of it..
Asked what responsibilities Singh, a former national president, was likely to be given in the JD(U) if he gives up his cabinet berth, Kushwaha said dismissively, “It is for him to decide. The party has other things on its agenda.”
About the expulsion of a number of perceived “RCP supporters”, including party spokesperson Ajay Alok, Kushwaha said, “Anybody who does not follow the party line will face the consequences.”
Incidentally, Ajay Alok has been attacking the Congress and the RJD over corruption charges even as the JD(U) leaders have kept away from making any statement against Rahul Gandhi over his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate. Ajay Alok also recently made some trenchant comments against Tejashwi Yadav.
Singh, who is perceived to have grown too close to ally BJP, is said to have miffed Kumar by not taking the latter’s consent before accepting a ministerial berth at the Centre. Kumar has been opposed to “token representation” being given to allies by the BJP which enjoys a brute majority in the Lok Sabha.
In a related development, the JD(U) has also come out with a detailed statement rebutting state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal’s contention that Bihar was lagging behind in development because of unchecked population growth.
The statement, issued jointly by JD(U) spokespersons Neeraj Kumar, Nikhil Mandal and Arvind Nishad, made no mention of the BJP or Jaiswal, but rued “bad name being given to Bihar by repeated talks of population growth”.
The statement asserted that Bihar had fared better than most states in checking population explosion ever since Kumar assumed command. It also questioned the link between high density of population and progress which Jaiswal had sought to establish in a lengthy Facebook post last week and cited the example of densely-populated Kerala which is noted for its exemplary performance in terms of human development.
The JD(U) statement also railed against “dushprachar” (malicious campaign) against “a particular religion”, highlighting “almost equal fertility rates among both Hindus and Muslims”.
It also pooh-poohed the suggestion, made explicitly by Jaiswal, that those with two children or less be provided with incentives in Government jobs, pointing out that a similar proposal was rejected in 2000 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government at the Centre which chose to focus more on health and education, like the Nitish Kumar administration has been doing in the State.
In the recent past, Nitish Kumar had rejected all of BJP’s pet agenda including Uniform Civil Code National Register of Citizens (NRC), removal of loudspeakers from mosques. The BJP has started raising the demand for population control measures after Nitish Kumar decided to go for caste census in Bihar, an issue the saffron party is not comfortable with.