"Dhire Dhire...": Nitish Kumar On Denial Of Special Status To Bihar

The Centre's decision to rule out special status for Bihar, a long-standing demand of one of the BJP's key allies, the Janata Dal United (JDU), has prompted a cryptic response from the party's president and state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. 

Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget on Tuesday, Mr Kumar was asked about the Union Government's decision, which was communicated in a written reply in Parliament the previous day. 

Speaking to reporters outside the Bihar Assembly, the chief minister, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the BJP and the NDA, said, "Sab kuch dhire dhire jaan jaiyega (You will get to know everything in due course)" before waving and walking in. 

The BJP, which has failed to get a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own, was dependent on its allies to reach the magic number of 272 and form the government for the third time under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP's tally was 240 and this meant that Mr Kumar's JDU, with its 12 MPs and Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, with 16, played a crucial role in government formation. 

Mr Kumar had left the NDA and joined hands with the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, which has the RJD and the Congress as key constituents, in August 2022. He was also one of the key architects of the opposition INDIA alliance, which managed to clinch 232 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, before switching sides yet again and siding with the NDA in January. 

After the Lok Sabha elections, the JDU had held a national executive meeting and passed a resolution reiterating its demand for special status.

On Monday, after the Union government's reply came to light, leaders of the JDU, which has two ministers in the Union government, went into firefighting mode, saying that the resolution also spoke of a "special package and other types of help" and that Bihar could still get a lot of aid from the Centre.

The opposition in Bihar, led by Lalu Yadav's RJD, had, however, used the opportunity to hit out at Mr Kumar and even demand his resignation. 

"Nitish Kumar appears to have compromised Bihar's aspirations and the trust of its people for the sake of power. He had promised to secure special status for Bihar, but now that the Centre has denied it, he should resign," Mr Yadav had said. 

In a post on X, the RJD handle wrote, "Nitish Kumar and JDU leaders must enjoy the fruits of power at the Centre and continue their drama politics on special status."

Decades-Long Push

Nitish Kumar, who is Bihar's longest-serving chief minister, has been pushing for special status since 2000, when many of the state's mineral-rich regions were carved out into the state of Jharkhand. 

Special status ensures more central support to a backward state to help boost its growth and bring it on a par with others. There was no provision for special status in the constitution but it was introduced in 1969 on the recommendations of the Fifth Finance Commission. 

As of 2024, eleven states have special status. These are Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Telangana. 

Ramprit Mandal, who is a JDU MP from Bihar's Jhanjharpur, had asked the Finance Ministry if the government plans to provide special status to Bihar and other most backward states to promote economic growth and industrialisation.

In a written response, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had said on Monday that a "case for Special Category Status for Bihar is not made out".

"The Special Category Status for plan assistance was granted in the past by the National Development Council (NDC) to some States that were characterized by a number of features necessitating special consideration. These features included (i) hilly and difficult terrain, (ii) low population density and/or sizeable share of tribal population, (iii) strategic location along borders with neighbouring countries, (iv) economic and infrastructural backwardness and (v) non-viable nature of State finances," the minister said. 

"Earlier, the request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which submitted its Report on 30th March, 2012. The IMG came to the finding that based on existing NDC criteria, the case for Special Category Status for Bihar is not made out," he added.