Anti-CAA row: When Bihar CM Nitish Kumar came to rescue of CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar

In what could be perceived as a shot in the ‘Left’ arm of the CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reprimanded his officials for detaining the former JNU students’ union leader in Champaran.

Nitish also told his officials that in a democracy, every citizen had a right to protest.

“It’s the government’s duty to ensure that there is no law and order problem when someone is staging a peaceful protest. Provide security to the protesters,” an angry chief minister reportedly reprimanded the district magistrate of West Champaran after news of Kanhaiya’s detention was flashed.

Kanhaiya was scheduled to take out ‘Jana Gana Man Yatra’ from Bhitiharwa Ashram in Champaran after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary on January 30.

The march was organised to protest against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the site was specifically chosen by Kanhaiya as it was this place in Champaran from where Mahatma Gandhi launched satyagraha against the British, also called indigo movement, in 1917.

However, as Kanhaiya was about to take out his march, he was reportedly detained by the district administration officials.

It is believed that the officials did so to please the West Champaran BJP MP, Sanjay Jaiswal, who is also the Bihar BJP president.

Nitish, who has declared that “NRC won’t be implemented in Bihar” and is not comfortable with the Narendra Modi government’s idea of NPR, has appealed to the Centre to withdraw the new NPR and use the old NPR form.

He was, however, reportedly angry when informed that Kanhaiya, protesting against CAA, had been detained in Champaran.

After Nitish’s reprimanded, the district officials not only allowed the protest march but also provided security to the protesters which included Congress legislator Shakeel Ahmad Khan, an alumnus of JNU, besides Kanhaiya.

The CPI leader, Kanhaiya, later thanked Nitish and said that it was “a slap on the face of the BJP MP.”