Bihar: RJD Dares Nitish Kumar to Take Action Against BJP MLA for Demand to Withdraw Voting Rights of Muslims

Patna: Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Saturday dared Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take action against his ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur, who demanded the withdrawal of voting rights of Muslims.

RJD spokesperson Mirtunjay Tiwari said Kumar should immediately take action against Thakur for spreading hate in the society, creating fear and terror.

"If Kumar believes in secular and inclusive politics, he should move to disqualify Thakur from the membership of state Assembly for playing subversive politics. Thakur has been creating frenzy and hate in the society," Tiwari said.

The RJD leader said such hate politics has no place in Bihar and will not click.

"We will not allow the saffron party to succeed in its attempt to spread hate to divide the society."

Another senior RJD leader Shakti Yadav questioned Kumar's silence over Thakur's communal statement, which is against constitutional rights.

"Kumar should direct police to register an FIR against Thakur and initiate a process to disqualify his membership of state assembly."

Shakti Yadav, who is considered close to former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, said the party MLAs would raise this issue in the Bihar Assembly on Monday, the second day of the ongoing budget session.

Thakur, who has emerged as a "firebrand Hindutva icon" in the state, on Thursday demanded the government withdraw the voting rights of Muslims and stated that Muslims could live in the country as second-class citizens.

"I demand from the government that Muslims' voting rights be withdrawn. They [Muslims] can live in India as second-class citizens," said Thakur.

His statement was countered by opposition parties, including RJD, Congress and Left parties - CPI (M), CPI and CPI (ML). Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmad Khan and CPI (ML) MLAs protested against him on the premises of the state Assembly on Friday.

In recent months Thakur has publicly made it clear that his role model is the saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Last September, Thakur had reiterated the party demand that Bakhtiyarpur town, named after a Muslim "invader", be rechristened as Nitish Nagar (named after Kumar).

Though the BJP leaders' demand to change the name of Bakhtiyarpur is an old one, it was given a new twist by Thakur, who sought to rename it after Kumar.

"If Allahabad can be renamed Prayagraj, why not Bakhtiyarpur? It should be renamed, Nitish Nagar. This place has had a close association with Kumar since his childhood. He is a Vikas purush (development man), and this would be a small gesture," said Thakur, who is an MLA from the Bisfi Assembly constituency.

Bakhtiyarpur is a small urban centre in the Patna district. It is about 50 km from Bihar's capital Patna and Kumar's hometown.

Thakur is not the only BJP leader known for repeated controversial statements that seek to strengthen Hindutva and polarise communal politics in the state. It appears there is a race within the party to emerge as an aggressive Hindutva hardliner. Early this week, Bihar agriculture minister and senior BJP leader Amrendra Pratap Singh played the Hindutva card by demanding control of the population of Muslims in the country. He warned that the increasing Muslim population should be controlled immediately. If the Muslim population is not controlled, it will prove dangerous, he said.

Earlier, Union minister Giriraj Singh, BJP MP from Begusarai, proposed that Bakhtiyarpur and other towns and cities in Bihar, named after Muslim "invaders", should be renamed. Singh first raised this demand soon after the BJP government in UP had renamed the Mughal Sarai Railway Junction as Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Junction and changed the name of Allahabad city to Prayagraj.

He had also attacked Kumar for opposing abrogation of Article 370, Triple Talaq and the National Register of Citizens. Singh had also made headlines in 2014 when he said that those opposing Narendra Modi should "go to Pakistan".

Political watchers here said with the BJP as the big brother in state politics, Kumar has a political compulsion to adjust and compromise to continue on CM chair.