A new Parliament building makes no sense: Nitish
The JD(U) leader, whose party is boycotting the inauguration of the new Parliament building on Sunday, dubbed the function as an attempt to “change history by those who had made no contributions to the freedom struggle”.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday questioned the need for a new Parliament building and blamed the Centre for his “inability” to attend the Niti Aayog meeting where he wished to raise issues like caste census and special status for the state.
The JD(U) leader, whose party is boycotting the inauguration of the new Parliament building on Sunday, dubbed the function as an attempt to “change history by those who had made no contributions to the freedom struggle”.
Kumar was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function to mark the death anniversary of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“What was the need for a new Parliament building? The earlier building was a historic one. Why did suddenly this government want to build a new Parliament? It is an attempt to write a new history by those who had no contribution in the freedom struggle. Had the same building been expanded, that would have been a different matter,” said Kumar.
The CM also expressed dismay over President Droupadi and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar not being invited to the function.
JD (U) has also announced to observe a day-long fast in Patna on the day to protest the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On BJP’s allegations that the state government did not invite the Governor for the inauguration ceremony of the extended building of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the CM said, “The building has only been expanded. No new assembly building has been constructed in Bihar,” he said.
On his decision not to attend Niti Aayog meeting on Saturday, Kumar said, “It was in the morning and I had other engagements in Patna during the day... Therefore, I could not go to Delhi. Had the meeting been held in the afternoon, I would have attended it. I sent a list of ministers and officials who could attend the meeting, but there was no response from the Centre. So, no representative from Bihar is attending today’s meeting”.
Kumar said he would have raised several issues had he attended the meeting. “We would have raised the issue of special status once again. Why hasn’t the special status been given to Bihar yet? The caste-based census, which was conducted by the central government in 2011, should have been done by them this time, which did not happen,” he said.
