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‘RJD ready for every war in Bihar’

The Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal-United and the Hindustani Awam Morcha are holding meetings of their legislators today…reports Asian Lite News

Amid speculation that Bihar’s Janata Dal-United might separate from the NDA in Bihar, RJD state President Jagadanand Singh claimed that his party is ready for every war.

He, however, denied any kind of pact with JD-U at this juncture.

“We have not given any proposal or invitation to Nitish Kumar to join the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar. We have called for the meeting on Tuesday to prepare plans for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Vidhan Sabha election. We are ready to fight any war,” Singh said.

Apart from the RJD, the JD-U and the HAM also announced meetings of their legislators on Tuesday.

JD-U state President Umesh Kushwaha said: “Tomorrow’s (Tuesday) meeting is being held to take the feedback of our MLAs, MLCs and MPs about the current situation.”

Interestingly, JD-U national President Lalan Singh said: “We have called a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation arising due to the R.C.P. Singh episode. Nitish Kumar will be chairing the meeting and legislators and MPs will put their points.”

Jitan Ram Manjhi, the patron of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is the only leader who claimed that what would be the decision taken by Nitish Kumar, his party will support him. HAM is with Nitish Kumar and JD-U. However, he also said that the NDA is intact and Nitish Kumar will rule the state.

Meanwhile, a JD-U MLA said: “Our top leadership has asked every MLA to reach Patna by 8 a.m. on Tuesday. At present, we do not know what will happen in the meeting but I expect that a big political storm will come up after the meeting. CM Nitish Kumar and national President Lalan Singh will be expected to take a big decision that decides the fate of the NDA in Bihar.”

Present option for BJP

The BJP is running out of options to do the damage control. Sources said that the party’s top leadership desperately wants to stay in power till 2024 and at the same time it is also taking a dig at JD(U). The BJP state president in particular frequently attacked the Nitish Kumar government apart from other leaders.

The roadshow of Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda in Patna on July 31 could be the final nail in the souring political relation between the BJP and JD(U).

The BJP did the ‘Prawas’ programme in 200 Assembly constituencies of Bihar, which has been taken as a threat by the JD(U). The party’s think tank realised that the BJP is violating the alliance norms. Hence, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, the national president of JD(U) said that the BJP was free to do Prawas programme in all 243 seats and the JD(U) is also entitled to do the same.

In case of the formation of a new government in Bihar, Nitish Kumar, who is considered as having a sharp political brain, would not resign from the chief minister post, like he did in 2017 after he broke the alliance with Mahagathbandhan and formed the government with BJP. At that time, Nitish Kumar knew that the Governor was appointed by BJP and it would not impose the President’s rule in the state.

At present, the same Governor is in the Raj Bhawan. Nitish Kumar, has the power to sack every minister of the BJP from his cabinet and appoint MLAs of RJD, Congress and Left parties as ministers. He did the same in 2013 and he may repeat the same in 2022.

In case of the BJP applying pressure on the Governor to ask Nitish Kumar to prove the majority in the House, he would prove it with the help of RJD, Congress and the Left parties.

Nitish Kumar is also feeling uneasy with the track record of BJP. The saffron party, over the years, has been weakening its alliance partners like its oldest allies Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Nitish Kumar probably believes that if he stays with the BJP for too long, it may hurt his party. Lalan Singh has already said that the BJP conspired against JD(U) in the 2020 Assembly election by using Chirag (Chirag Paswan) model. As a result, the party reached 43 seats in the Bihar Assembly. In 2015, JD(U) had 69 seats.

Nitish Kumar may use corruption cases against the BJP ministers as a tool to exit from the NDA. Ram Surat Rai, the land reforms and revenue minister is facing the charges of transfer-posting case and Tar Kishore Prasad, the deputy CM is facing the corruption charges of alloting contracts of ‘Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal’ to his family members.

ALSO READ-JD(U), RJD oppose change in history syllabus

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Education India News

JD(U), RJD oppose change in history syllabus

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav also said that the change in the syllabus of history was an “unfortunate” move by the Central government…reports Asian Lite News

Bihar Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary on Monday objected to the change in the syllabus of the history of Class 10 and 12 of the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE).

Chaudhary said that he has not seen the original notification regarding the change of syllabus in History subject. “If such a development has taken place, I would say the Bihar government will not change the syllabus of history,” the JD-U leader said.

“We cannot ignore the history of our country and world. It helps us to rectify the mistakes by referring to the past incidents. For instance, the 1971 India Pakistan war was an important part of our history when then prime minister late Indira Gandhi took the decision… and Indian forces defeated Pakistan, a new country Bangladesh was created. If we remove it from our history, how would our coming generation learn about it,” Chaudhary said.

“Similarly, the Mughal era of ruling our country is also a fact. We cannot ignore it. If we remove it from history, how could we learn from it? Such incidents are an integral part of our history which we cannot ignore. The Bihar government is not going to change any lesson from history,” Chaudhary said.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav also said that the change in the syllabus of history was an “unfortunate” move by the Central government.

“The Narendra Modi government wants to impose RSS syllabus in the academic class and change the constitution. We strongly object to the move of the Centre,” Yadav, an RJD leader, said.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and Cabinet Minister Jibesh Mishra said: “At present, the students are learning ‘false history’ which attributes to humiliation of the country. Now, the children will learn the original history of the country. We welcome the move of the Centre.”

According to the sources in CBSE, lessons like Non-Aligned Movement, history of Mughal Darbars, Cold War, rise of Islamic empire in Asian and African countries, Industrial Revolution etc have been changed on the recommendation of the education ministry (HRD ministry).

ALSO READ-JD-U, RJD object to change in CBSE history syllabus

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India News Politics

Sharad Yadav all set to merge LJD with RJD

The LJD-RJD merger might be a prelude to the RJD nominating Sharad to the Rajya Sabha in the Upper House biennial polls slated for June…reports Asian Lite News

Veteran socialist leader and former Union minister Sharad Yadav, 74, is all set to merge his Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) with the Lalu Prasad Yadav-headed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday. Top RJD leader and Bihar’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, will be present at this merger function to be held at Sharad’s residence in Delhi.

Since its inception in May 2018, the LJD never fought any election, with Sharad himself contesting, unsuccessfully, from Madhepura in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the RJD ticket. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, Sharad’s daughter Suhashini Yadav contested unsuccessfully from Bihariganj seat as a Congress candidate.

Announcing his decision to merge his party with his friend-turned-rival-turned-friend Lalu’s party, Sharad has said this will be part of his efforts to bring together various splinter outfits of the erstwhile Janata Dal. “To establish a strong Opposition in the country is the need of the hour. I have been working in this direction for a long time to unite breakaway parties of the erstwhile Janata Dal as well as other like-minded parties. Hence, I have decided to merge my party LJD with the RJD,” he tweeted on Wednesday.

Tejashwi, who has been at the helm of the RJD following the incarceration of his father Lalu Prasad in the fifth fodder scam case, has called Sharad a “father-figure and socialist icon”. “Everyone knows the importance of veteran socialist Sharad Yadav in Indian politics. He is a father figure and would guide us,” he had recently said in Patna.

“The merger of LJD with RJD is not just symbolic,” said RJD national spokesperson Subodh Mehta. “As Sharad Yadav ji rightly pointed out that the merger would be the first step towards the Opposition unity. Sharad Yadav has been a stalwart who commands respect from across political divides. RJD would gain a lot from his experience.”

It is however another matter that this merger had been on the cards for a long time. The LJD’s founder leaders like Sharad and ex-MP Ali Anwar had been in the political wilderness over the last several years, with their party failing to make any headway into Bihar or any state. Sharad himself is not known to have a mass base beyond Madhepura, a constituency that he represented several times in the Lok Sabha.

For the RJD, Sharad Yadav’s importance stems from not only his political stature but also the fact that the former Janata Dal (United) leader had taken on his then party colleague and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his decision to return to the BJP-led NDA fold in 2017. Sharad had opposed Nitish’s move and had to pay for his resistance by losing his Rajya Sabha seat midway.

The LJD-RJD merger might be a prelude to the RJD nominating Sharad to the Rajya Sabha in the Upper House biennial polls slated for June. Though there is no official word so far from either camp in this regard, there has been a buzz in political circles about it.

The merger will also mark the Sharad-Lalu relationship coming full circle. As the then Choudhary Devi Lal aide, Sharad had been instrumental in the Janata Dal camp in the selection of Lalu Prasad as the CM through an internal party contest after the 1990 Bihar elections, when the then Prime Minister VP Singh had been backing the candidature of Ram Sunder Das for the post. Lalu had won that contest involving him, Das and Raghunath Jha by three votes.

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India News Politics

Potshots between Congress, RJD intensify

It clearly indicates that RJD has an undisclosed alliance with the BJP to form the government in Bihar. We have fought against the BJP but they (RJD) are compromising their ideology to come into power,” he added…reports Asian Lite News.

By-elections for the Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur Assembly seats may turn to be a cakewalk for Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United JD-U as the opposition RJD and Congress are more busy fighting each other.

Congress’ Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das accused the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of having an “undisclosed pact” with the BJP in the by-election.

“Tejashwi Yadav, the son of Lalu Prasad, has taken away the right of Congress by fielding RJD candidates from both Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur. He has violated the coalition pact with us. We demanded one seat of Kusheshwar Asthan where we have strong ground support but he denied us,” he said.

“As he has not conceded one seat to the Congress, it means that he does not want the 19 seats of Congress to form the government. It clearly indicates that RJD has an undisclosed alliance with the BJP to form the government in Bihar. We have fought against the BJP but they (RJD) are compromising their ideology to come into power,” he added.

Hitting back, RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj K. Jha accused Das of “not knowing the ground reality of Bihar”.

“Das is a drawing room politician who has no knowledge of the sacrifices of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. He has made unacceptable comments against the RJD. He has given statement without being briefed by other leaders of the state,” he said.

“There were so many Chief Ministers of Congress in Bihar but no one had taken strong decisions like Lalu ji by arresting L.K. Advani (during his Ayodhya Rathyatra),” Jha added.

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