Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday 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 move is clearly politically motivated.
"And they want to win over the Janata Dal (United) by this strategy, we will not allow this to succeed," he added.
Sinha, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Hazaribagh, further said he is disappointed with the statement made by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajiv 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.
Rajiv Shukla had yesterday downplayed the ongoing debate over his statement made in Parliament that Bihar's request for special status was under consideration, and said that the current provision does not give any scope to give Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand that status.
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"The Raghuram Rajan Committee has been constituted. Once we get the report of the Raghuram Rajan committee, accordingly we will move forward because unless there is a recommendation from the Raghuram Committee we can't move forward," said Shukla.
"And the reply, which I had given in Parliament, which is being unnecessarily quoted in Odisha, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. I want to clarify that it's not that we don't want to give this status to Odisha, Rajasthan or Jharkhand. The current provision does not give us any scope to give them that status," he added.
"In case of the request of Bihar, an inter-ministerial group (IMG) was set up in September, 2011. The IMG has submitted its report on March 30, 2012. The request of Bihar is under consideration," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has appealed to the Centre to reconsider the parameters for granting a state special status.
