Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
Janata Dal (United) general secretary Pavan Varma on Sunday wrote to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar calling National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act "a direct attempt to divide Hindus and Muslims. Varma's letter has come right when there is unease between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its NDA allies that include Nitish Kumar's JD(U). Even as Narendra Modi-led central government seems assertive on these issues, Nitish Kumar in past has expressed reservation about the implementation of NRC in Bihar.
“The CAA-NRC combine is a direct attempt to divide Hindus and Muslims and to create social instability. Besides, it will impose great hardships on Indians as a whole, including especially the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable belonging to all communities,” said Varma in his letter.
Varma expressed "surprise" at Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi announcing "unilaterally" that National Population Register (NPR) will be carried out in Bihar.
"I am greatly surprised that Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi has unilaterally announced that the NPR will be carried out in Bihar between May 15 and May 28," Varma wrote.
In his letter, the JD(U) gen sec has also lashed out at the Centre and has suggested that "real priorities" need to be taken up.
"The central government needs to focus on the real priorities of governance such as the disastrous state of the economy, absence of jobs and agrarian distress, rather than such schemes whose aim is to destroy the unity and social cohesion of our great country," Varma said.
BJP and JD(U), though allies are sharing uneasy bond for some time now. The situation was made somewhat worse for the two parties after recently concluded Jharkhand Assembly Elections in which BJP had to suffer defeat. However, both parties are maintaining that they are very much together.
Here is Pavan Varma's tweet containing full text of his letter
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