Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s steep political differences with his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi has deprived Bihar’s farmers an opportunity to gain the latest agricultural insights by attending a global farmers’ convention planned next month in Ahmedabad.
After first selecting 126 farmers from across Bihar for the summit as per a request from the Gujarat government, the Bihar government suddenly chose to backtrack, making the main Opposition party BJP accuse Kumar of indulging in petty politics at the cost of Bihar’s agricultural growth.
The BJP, formerly the JD(U)’s ruling alliance in Bihar for over seven years, refused to buy the state agriculture department’s argument that it would be “unwise” to send the state’s farmers for the three-day “Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit” in September when Bihar currently faces a drought.