Suggesting Bihar’s exclusive rights on India’s national symbol Ashoka Chakra, chief minister Nitish Kumar has put forward a proposal that the Centre should “return” this symbol to the state in the event of continuing its vacillation over demands made by the NDA government he heads.
Mr Kumar’s apparent frustrations with the Congress-led UPA government over his longstanding demands for according Bihar a special category state status with substantially extra economic benefits resulted in his making the proposal that has started getting criticised and construed as one patently against the Indian republic’s spirit of federalism.
“Sometimes I think that if they (the Centre) have nothing to give us (Bihar), then they should return us our Ashoka Chakra. It was taken from here,” said Mr Kumar at a public function organised to mark India’s first President Rajendra Prasad’s 127th birth anniversary on Saturday.
The Ashoka Chakra, part of India’s national emblem and most prominently displayed at the centre of the national flag, is a statutory adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital erected by the great Hindu king Ashoka of the Mauryan empire. An eloquent embodiment of India’s cultural heritage with branches in Buddhist philosophy, the wheel was described by former President and scholar-philosopher S. Radhakrishnan as “the wheel of the law of dharma”.
“Kumar’s statement is similar to those of Raj Thakre and Bhindranwale, and seems to have cross-border connections,” said senior Bihar Congress leader Premchand Mishra. “While the whole of India has right on this symbol, a literate CM must know that Bihar cannot claim the Ashoka Chakra as its own because it was originally in Sarnath, for long in UP, and still remains in a museum there,” Mr Mishra added.
Demanding an apology from Mr Kumar and an FIR against him in its absence, Mr Mishra said: “Such statements prove there is little difference between Bihar’s current CM and his predecessor Rabri Devi”.
RJD MP Ramkripal Yadav said Mr Kumar was “badly mistaken”. Describing the Ashoka Chakra as “national property,” he said: “Kumar’s statement is a stab on federalism. He must apologise”. An equally critical LJP chief and MP Ramvilas Paswan said: “Such sacred national symbols must not be dragged into politics, never into Centre-state politics”.