Even as the UPA Government faces one crisis after another in view of the DMK walking out from the alliance and the Samajwadi Party keeping the Government on tenterhooks, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated that no political motive should be derived from the UPA Government’s gestures on the issue of special status to Bihar as the Congress-led Government at the Centre has no alternative other than conceding the State’s genuine demand.
Reacting to media reports which suggest that that the UPA Government will soon change the criteria fixed for treating any State backward, Kumar told newspersons in Patna that the demand for the special status to Bihar is based on strong points and all escape routes for the UPA Government are blocked now left with no other way out other than according special status to the State.
He said that the media reports have not added anything new on this count and only repeated what Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram mentioned in his Budget Speech and what also found a place in the Economic Survey. He said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might have discussed the issue of special status to backward States with the people concerned before going to Durban.
Kumar, however, asked the UPA to change the criteria fixed for according special status to Bihar sooner rather than later, apparently apprehending the probability of the UPA resorting to delay tactics by constituting committees for finding out ways how to accord special status to backward States but instead protracting the matter for an “unacceptable” time in such a way.
When asked that reports suggest that criteria will be changed for according the “backward” status and not the “special” status, he said that these are only newspaper reports but contended that Bihar will not settle less than special status.
Kumar has held “Adhikar Rally” at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi on March 17 so that his demand for the special status could be heard in a better manner. Earlier, he had held similar rally at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna on November 4 last year. He has now repeatedly started saying that if his demand for the special status is conceded, it will benefit other backward States too as the revised criteria will be applicable to all of them.