After advertisements in Bihar newspapers showing Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar together damaged the JD(U)-BJP relations and led the Opposition parties to charge Mr Kumar with hidden communalism, a Bihar government advertisement for appointment of Urdu teachers has now attracted charges that Kumar’s government harbours anti-Urdu sentiments.
The advertisement, issued by Bihar’s education department for appointment of 12,862 Urdu teachers in the state’s primary schools, has been interpreted by the Opposition RJD as discriminatory against Urdu-knowing candidates. Speaking about the advertisement on Monday, senior RJD leader Shakil Ahmed Khan accused the Nitish Kumar government of being “anti-Urdu and anti-minority”.
“The advertisement makes it clear that the Nitish government has presupposed that there would not be enough Urdu-knowing candidates available for the Urdu teachers’ jobs and so a vast majority of these jobs could be filled up with general candidates. Two different sets of educational and experience conditions set for Urdu-knowing and general candidates shows the discrimination,” said Mr Ahmed to reporters.
Mr Ahmed alleged that the conditions had been made in such manner that only about 1,500 Urdu-knowing teachers could be appointed and the rest would be those not knowing Urdu. Bihar’s education department secretary, Anjani Kumar, was unavailable for comment, but education department officials denied of any discrimination. “The recruitment rules have been made with clear political intervention. The government’s real anti-Urdu and anti-minority face was exposed again by this advertisement after previous advertisements showed chief minister Nitish Kumar with communal politician Narendra Modi,” said Mr Ahmed.