Akhtarul Iman attacked Nitish Kumar for tying up with BJP after returning to power in 2015
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Saturday charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with having failed to fulfil his promise of uplifting the state's minorities, and demanded a "white paper" on their representation in various government jobs.
"I challenge the Chief Minister to come up with a white paper and place on record what is the percentage of men and women from minorities in government jobs. He won the elections with minorities' support, vowing to defeat the BJP and then ended up joining hands with the same party," the party's Bihar unit president Akhtarul Iman said.
Mr Iman also attacked the JD(U) chief for tying up with the BJP after returning to power for his third consecutive term in 2015, when the state's minorities had extended him their whole-hearted support for keeping the BJP out of power.
"Nitish Kumar loves to make a spectacle of appearing at the historic Gandhi Maidan here on every Eid with a skull cap on his head and a scarf around his neck. We have no problems with his gestures of solidarity, but we cannot help feeling that by wearing the skullcap he intends to deceive Muslims (topi pahnana chahte hain)," Mr Iman said here.
The Chief Minister should tell the state's minorities what action his government has taken to improve their condition, he said.
"Their plight has been highlighted again and again, be it in the Rangnath Misra Commission report or the Sachar Committee report. A survey conducted by the Bihar government itself stated that even among peons, the representation of minorities is less than six per cent," Mr Iman alleged.
The AIMIM leader said approval was granted for setting up an extension campus of Aligarh Muslim University at Kishanganj district in the Seemanchal region, which has a heavy concentration of minorities, about a decade ago.
"B.Ed courses started there had to be stopped since the extension campus did not have its own building as mandated by the NCTE. Nitish Kumar has been in power for so long. Could he not provide land for the campus?
Mr Iman had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls this year from Kishanganj on an AIMIM ticket.