Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar again reiterated that he had never been a claimant for the office of the Prime Minister. “May be some people saying this but I am not so foolish to stake such a claim. My agenda is to free the country from a particular ideology. We never made ideological compromises. We are ready to be finished but won’t buckle under pressure,” Nitish said while addressing a conclave of people belonging to Socialist ideology here on Tuesday. He added the people of Bihar are also not fool who elected him three times to serve the State.
The function was held at Anjuam Islamia Hall, the venue where in 1934 on this day the Congress Socialist Party had been formed. To mark the 82nd anniversary of that event different socialist bodies had organised the Samajwadi Ekjut-ta Sammelam which was inaugurated by the CM who stressed on the larger unity among the people wedded to the socialist ideology. Nitish, who is also the president of JD(U), assured the participants all cooperation from his party to achieve this goal.
The conclave was attended among others by Medha Patkar, freedom fighter GG Parikh, Magsaysay awarded Sandip Pandey, Hind Mazdoor Sabha general secretary Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, Sadashiv Magdum of Rashtriya Seva Dal, ex J&K MP Sheikh Abdul Rahman, Bapu Hedur Shetty of Centre for Socialist Study, Begaluru, Karnataka MlA BR Patil and Samajwadi Samagam convener Dr Sunilam, who organized the event.
Nitish said the environment building up in the country was not healthy and called upon the socialists to continue their fight for rights. “No power can suppress this voice and those trying to suppress it will exit very soon. Those came to grab power by befooling people will have to go,” he said. He said contrary to RSS, the socialist ideology is very strong but it lacked strong organisation.
The CM said all the projects his Government has started are influenced with the thoughts of Ram Manohar lohia, Jai Prakash Narayn and Karpoori Thakur. His Government provided 50 per cent reservation to women in local bodies which had been advocated by lohia.
“The Samajwadis should unite taking a cue from the political unity of three parties in Bihar which showed its strength. Efforts should be made to unite all those who do not subscribe to the ideologies of RSS and BJP,” he called upon the participants particularly the senior socialists.