Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement total prohibition in all the BJP ruled States. Referring to the PM’s praise on prohibition, he said that he has forcefully imposed the scheme not only through the law but also by involving people in this campaign.
Addressing a meeting to observe birth anniversary of great Socialist leader and former CM Karpoori Thakur, the CM also asked the PM to reveal to the nation the positive results of the demonetisation as now 77 days have passed since the note ban and the PM had promised relief to the people after 50 days. “In the coming Union Budget, the Centre should clearly mention how much money was deposited and how much was black money. The nation is waiting for such announcement as the national economic growth has slowed down and people have suffered a lot,” said Nitish.
Nitish, who is also national president of JD(U) and supported demonetisation, said that the poor people who financially suffered due to note ban should be compensated . “We supported this move because we are always against black money and corruption. Our support was interpreted in different manners and rumours were spread that I was inching closer to certain political party. But as a matter of fact we support what is right and the support to demonetisation should be seen in the context of our support to GST when BJP was opposed to it and also to back Pranab Mukherjee during Presidential election when BJP supported another candidate,” said Nitish without giving any hint on reviewing stand on note bandi.
Coming down heavily on Bihar BJP leaders, particularly Sushil Kumar Modi without taking his name, the CM said they had no other option but to support prohibition and join human chain after their top leader publicly praised it but still they were trying to find out faults and saying that children were forced to join the human chain in January 21. “Our campaign is for social change and children are best medium to educate the society,” he said and asked BJP leaders why the children are involved in shakhas of RSS. He said, “I want to tell the PM that Bihar BJP leader are still in two minds on prohibition and they have not supported our decision heartily.”
Nitish said there was a target of involving two crore people in human chain but the latest reports suggested that around four crore people joined it. The population of Bihar is around 12 crore. “A strong foundation for social transformation has been laid and nobody can alter it,” he claimed.
Referring to the questionnaire sent by the law Commission on Uniform Civil Code, the CM said Bihar is the only State which returned it and Bihar will send its views on Wednesday to the Centre. “This is not a proper way to send questionnaire to State Governments asking them to reply in yes or no. India is a pluralistic society and each religion has its own laws. This is not merely the case for Muslims. The Centre has to consult and take into confidence each religious group and should reveal what is its proposal for making new legislation. We are not ready to compromise with our ideologies,” Nitish said.