The Left parties - CPI and CPI(M) - today backed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's call for 'Bihar bandh' on March two next to protest against the Centre for ignoring his demand for grant of special status to the state and appealed to people to make the bandh a success.
"We (CPI and CPI(M) support the Chief Minister's call for 'Bihar bandh' on March two next in protest against the Centre for ignoring his demand for grant of special status to Bihar," the state units of the two Left parties said in a statement after meeting of its state leaders.
It has been due to the Centre's discriminatory attitude that Bihar continues to remain a poor and backward state since the post-independence days, a fact which even the Raghuram Rajan panel has admitted, they said.
Observing that the successive Central governments since Independence had ignored Bihar's aspiration for development and turned deaf ears towards stir for special package to the state to tide over backwardness, the two Left parties said that they have been supportive of the demand for grant of special status to the state by the Chief Minister.
Slamming the UPA government, the two Left parties said the Centre has meted out "injustice" to Bihar by according special status to Seemandhra after deciding to carve out Telangana from Andhar Pradesh and ignoring Bihar's legitimate demand for grant of special status.
Fully backing the Chief Minister's 'Bihar bandh' call on March two next, the two Left parties appealed to the people of Bihar to take to streets in large numbers and make the bandh successful so that a strong message could go to the Centre about injustice meted out to Bihar by ignoring its demand for grant of special status.
