The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today made a frontal attack on the Congress as well as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leadership for maintaining silence on the issue of the Centre's denial to grant special status to Jharkhand.
Talking to media persons, BJP State president Ravindra Rai said, "Congress in principle has been against Jharkhand. Ever since the State came into existence, Congress used its influence to only to serve its purpose in the State."
The BJP critcised the Congress stand that Jharkhand does not fulfill the criteria to qualify for the special status. Union Planning Minister Rajiv Shukla in a statement made in Rajya Sabha had declared that Jharkhand along with some other states did not fulfill the criteria to get status of a special State. The principal opposition party expressed shock at the Congress' stand in Parliament given the fact that the Raghuram Rajan Committee formed for the purpose of determining states which qualify for the backward category is yet to submit its report. The BJP in the process suggested that the Congress is in the know of the commission's recommendations even before it is presented for consideration.
"Jharkhand fulfills all criteria needed for the status of a special state hence the party believes that for the State's economic progress special status should be granted," he maintained. "Congress never grants special status for constructive works. It always uses it for destructive purposes," maintained Rai. The BJP is gearing up for massive protest against the Centre and UPA's main constituent Congress party. The party also condemned JMM for overlooking the interest of Jharkhand and sacrificing it for remaining in the power.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha also accused the Centre of politicising the issue of special category status to Bihar, and alleged that the Congress-led UPA Government wants to win over the Janata Dal (United) with this strategy. Sinha said that the Congress wants to win over the Janata Dal (United) by this strategy. But we will not allow this to succeed, he added.
Sinha, who is MP from Hazaribagh, further said he is disappointed with the statement made by Shukla in Parliament that Jharkhand does not deserve the special category status. "This is completely wrong and we will protest against it in Parliament. Jharkhand is a backward state and deserves all considerations like all other backward states from the Government of India so that it can come at par with the more developed states in the country," he added.
Meanwhile, the BJP also took a dig at Congress to show its preference for outsiders to man the Co-ordination Committee and Common Minimum Programme Implementation Committee. "Congress did not find any local leader to head either the Coordination Committee or the Common Minimum Programme Implementation Committee," Rai quipped.