A day after Narendra Modi slammed the Central Food Security Bill and a top JD(U) leader enumerated its loopholes, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Monday backed the UPA, saying the JD(U) would support the bill and that Bihar had already started preparations to implement it.
Although Mr Kumar said it would have been better if the ordinance on food security had come after detailed discussions in Parliament, he said supporting it and implementing it would benefit millions of needy citizens. Mr Kumar’s explicit support for the law and the ordinance, a day after senior JD(U) leader and the party’s national spokesman Shivanand Tiwary questioned the UPA government on the scheme, was seen as a sign of the JD(U) strongman taking a step closer towards the Congress after his regional Bihar party’s split from long-time ally BJP.
“We will support the UPA government on the Food Security Bill,” said Mr Kumar to reporters after attending the weekly “janata durbar” programme at his official residence. “It would have been better if the ordinance had come after a proper discussion in Parliament. Now there is no such option and the state government will take steps for implementation of the food-related laws,” he added.
Stressing that the JD(U) has always been in favour of the food security law in “principle” and even had offered suggestions for the draft legislation, Mr Kumar said the Bihar government’s departments of food and civil supplies, and the urban and rural development had already been directed to prepare the ground work for implementing of the ordinance in the state.
In a veiled attack on his Gujarat counterpart and BJP’s national campaign coordinator Narendra Modi for his recent controversial comments such as “veil of secularism” and the “puppy under a car wheel,” Mr Kumar said “the language used by a BJP leader (was) to hurt the feeling of a community”.
“The reason we broke away (from the BJP) is being vindicated every day since the split. The question is not of Bihar only. The whole country’s future is involved,” said Mr Kumar, without naming Mr Modi as usual.