Belying the Slogan ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas’, the Bihar unit of the BJP has opposed budgetary allocations for minorities and also announced its intention to invite the newly elected and controversial UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for a felicitation programme in Bihar. Media reports have suggested that Yogi Adityanath’s Hindu Yuva Vahini has announced launching of its units in the Muslim dominated Seemanchal areas of Bihar.
Image: India Today
The Opposition in Bihar, the BJP, on Wednesday staged protest within the Bihar Legislative Assembly against Nitish Kumar government’s decision to enhance the budgetary allocation for minorities welfare for 2017-18 by a whopping 254 per cent as compared to the last year.
Accusing the Grand Alliance government of indulging in "minority appeasement", BJP and NDA members trooped into the well of the house and raised anti-government slogans. The issue was raised by leader of Opposition Prem Kumar during zero hour.
Later, while talking to sections of the media, Prem Kumar also demanded closure of thousands of illegal abattoirs in Bihar too as done in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The opposition leader said that in the budgetary allocation for the next fiscal, a 254 per cent hike has been given to minority welfare as compared to 2016-17. He claimed that the budgetary allocations for SC/ST welfare has been slashed by 20 per cent and for OBC and Extremely Backward castes by 22 per cent, he said. Echoing the divisive issues raised by the Modi-Shah combine during the run up to the UP polls late last month, Kumar also said that while works related to the fencing of graveyards (kabristan) were completed on time in Bihar during the last year, works related to the smashan (crematorium) dragged on.[The fencing of 5307 of the total 8064 graveyards in the state were completed in 2016-2017, while crematoria were not given any attention, he claimed]. Taking a cue from the arbitrary crackdown on illegal abattoirs in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, the Bihar BJP also demanded the closure of thousands of unlicensed abattoirs in the state.
Prem Kumar who was accompanied by Lallan Paswan of RLSP (Rashtriya Lok Samata Party), an ally of BJP in NDA, and BJP leader Neeraj Singh Bablu, also demanded the stopping of illegal trade of cattle and buffaloes from Bihar to Bangladesh and other parts of the country.