Nitish remote-controlled CM; didn't make efforts to include Bihar's quota law in 9th Schedule: Congress

Patna: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a "remote-controlled chief minister" on Thursday and asked why he or the BJP-led Centre did not ensure that the Bihar reservation law was made part of the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

Ramesh also took a dig at Kumar for switching sides frequently, saying "bees saal, char palti (20 years, four U-turns)".

Releasing a "chargesheet" against the BJP-JD(U) rule in Bihar ahead of next month's Assembly polls, Ramesh said the "double-engine" government does not have fuel.

Asserting that the upcoming polls would be historic, the Congress leader said Bihar is at a decisive turn and it has to choose between welfare, social justice and economic development under "Mahagathbandhan" and the "double engine without fuel".

Speaking about the reservation issue at a press conference here along with senior party leaders Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ramesh said, "Despite the BJP's opposition, the Mahagathbandhan government got a caste survey done. You can see Bihar's history -- the RSS made Karpoori Thakur's government fall in 1979 on the issue of reservation and in 1990, the BJP made the V P Singh government fall on the issue of reservation."

"In Bihar, the Mahagathbandhan government, before the volte face (of Nitish Kumar), got the caste survey done, while the BJP opposed it. Senior Congress leaders at the national level, leaders of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi demanded a caste census and pointed out that in order to achieve the social justice that the Constitution talks about, it is important to get a caste census done," he said.

A caste survey was conducted in Bihar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against a nationwide caste census, Ramesh said.

He said a notification for 65 per cent reservation was issued. It was challenged in the high court and the matter is now pending in the Supreme Court.

"I want to ask the chief minister, who is the chief minister only in name and is a remote-controlled chief minister, and the remote controller, why did you not put the (Bihar reservation) law in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution," the Congress leader said.

Ramesh pointed out that under the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1994, the law protecting 69 per cent reservation in Tamil Nadu was included in the Ninth Schedule.

He accused the Centre and the Bihar government of not making efforts to include the Bihar reservation law in the Ninth Schedule.

"This election is not national but of Assembly but it will have a national impact. This is an election for the future of Bihar. All sections of the society want freedom from 20 years of jumla (rhetoric)," Ramesh said.

Bihar will go to polls in two phases on November 6 and 11 and the counting of votes will be taken up on November 14 to decide the fate of the NDA government led by Kumar and the challenge posed by the opposition bloc comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, among others.