Prashant Kishor meets Nitish Kumar, discusses NRC
Faced with pressure from his party leaders following his tweets against the JD (U)’s decision to support the amended citizenship act, party national vice-president Kishor met Kumar on Saturday evening, apparently to clear the air on his remarks.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has assured Janata Dal (United) vice-president Prashant Kishor that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be implemented in the state, according to a party functionary who did not want to be named.
Faced with pressure from his party leaders following his tweets against the JD (U)’s decision to support the amended citizenship act, party national vice-president Kishor met Kumar on Saturday evening, apparently to clear the air on his remarks.
The functionary quoted above said Kishor offered to resign from his post, but was turned down by the CM.
In Assam, NRC was mandated and monitored by the Supreme Court. The claim of every Assam resident was verified with these legacy documents. Close to 33 million people applied and the final list published on August 31 excluded 1.9 million people.
Emerging after two-hour long meeting at the CM’s residence, Kishor evaded questions on his resignation. “I met CM and put my views before the party national president and explained how the amended citizenship act and NRC together would be disastrous for the country. I stand by my statement. Now, a decision has to be taken by Nitish Kumar,” he said, and added that he was not shaken by the demands and utterances of party leaders.
JD(U), an ally of the Centre’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has backed the government, which pushed the legislation earlier in the week in both Houses of Parliament. The legislation has triggered a debate on whether citizenship should be linked with religion. It has fuelled protests in the North-east and several other parts of the country.
The new law allows citizenship to migrants from Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Jain, Christian and Buddhist faiths fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It has roiled North-east, which has for long demanded protections to safeguard its cultural identity.
Kishor’s meeting with CM Kumar came in the backdrop of Kishor speaking out openly against the citizenship act.
Several JD(U) leaders, including national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member RCP Singh, another close associate of Kumar, has criticised Kishor for his stand on the legislation and called him “a leader recruited in party on compassionate ground”.
When questioned about Singh’s remark Kishor said, “He is a senior leader. Whatever he said I do not take note of that.”
Kishor went on clarify that even chief minister had advised him [Kishor] to leave the matter related to utterances by other leaders to him.
