Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Refuses to Clarify JD-U's Stand on CAA

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar on January 24 refused to clarify the reason behind his party’s support to CAA, which was requested by senior party leader, Pavan Verma.

“I hardly give any attention or importance to Pavan Verma’s letter. Such letters have no value,” Kumar said referring to the letter written to him by JD-U leader Pavan Verma, who had also sought ideological clarity on the party’s decision to support the recently amended citizenship act.

Embarrassed by Verma’s letter that sought ideological clarity from him, Nitish Kumar questioned the way Verma first mailed the letter followed by releasing it in the media. “Is it call a letter, you write any thing, mailed it and then tweet about it and release it to the media. This is not welcome.”

Interestingly, Nitish Kumar did not say anything against JD-U national vice-president Prashant Kishor, who had dared the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to implement CAA and NRC ignoring dissent and protest.

However, for the second consecutive day, the JD(U) chief assured their ally BJP that his party’s support to CAA will not change and he will continue to back it, while refusing to utter a word in favour of the ongoing countrywide protest against CAA-NRC-NPR despite being repeatedly questioned by local mediapersons in Patna.

Also read: Nitish Kumar's Support to CAA Challenged by Own Party Leaders

“Nitish Kumar is fully in support of CAA and stands with the BJP, there is no more speculation over his position,” said a senior BJP leader Nikhil Anand. JD-U had voted in favour of CAB in both the houses of Parliament last month, despite opposition within the party by some leaders.

After Verma’s letter, opposition parties including Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Left parties and others have targeted him and described it as a compromise for power. Earlier on January 23, the CM had said that Verma was free to leave the party and join any other.

Commenting on this, Bihar Opposition leader, Tejashwi Yadav, said, “Nitish Kumar himself exposed his party’s ideological stand and said that he has no problem with RSS-BJP and their issues.”

Verma, JD-U general secretary, in his letter had said that he was “deeply perplexed by this development and looked to Kumar (Nitish) for ideological clarity”. The diplomat turned politician had added that Nitish Kumar in private conversation had on more than one occasion, expressed his apprehension about the BJP-RSS combine.

Verma also said that BJP has embarked on a socially divisive agenda aimed at mutilating peace and harmony of the country through the combination of CAA, NPR and NRC. This is probably the first time that Kumar’s stand to favour CAA has been questioned publicly by his party colleagues.

The latest political development has further damaged image of Nitish Kumar as a secular leader in Bihar. People have termed Nitish Kumar’s support to CAA as his last bid to save his CM’s chair, even at the cost of compromising JD-U’s ideological stand for a secular India.