Laloo shifts stand on Vananchal
Tribune News Service and agencies

PATNA, Sept 14 — In a complete turn-about, the RJD chief, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, today revived his opposition to the creation of a separate tribal state from out of Bihar even at the cost of alienating the supporting JMM-S and thundered that he was prepared to lay down his life to keep Bihar ‘one, strong and united’.

Charging the BJP-RSS combine with trying to make the tribal south Bihar a ‘colony of the RSS’, Mr Yadav said he was willing to perish at their hands to block the move.

A partition of Bihar in ‘my life is unthinkable’, the former Chief Minister told newsmen here after a meeting of the ruling RJD Legislature Party.

The Centre’s draft proposal for creation of a separate tribal state, Vananchal, needs approval by the state assembly before it can be pursued further.

Mr Yadav, who had earlier threatened that a separate tribal state could be created only "upon my dead body", later bought peace with the Jharkhand parties, particularly, the JMM-S, by moving a resolution for the creation of a separate state following a split in the Janata Dal, leading to formation of the RJD, and its strained relations with the Left parties.

In making the turn-about, Mr Yadav took shelter behind espousal of the cause of a larger tribal state comprising contiguous tribal districts of Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, asserting the very philosophy of Jharkhand stood for this and not Vananchal state comprising only 18 Bihar districts as mooted by the BJP.

Mr Yadav’s statement, made barely four days before the special session of the state assembly to discuss the Bihar Reorganisation (Vananchal) Bill, 1998, sent by the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, for seeking its opinion, has put a big question mark on its adoption.

NEW DELHI: Stung by threats of the dismissal of the Rabri Devi-led RJD government in Bihar, Mr Yadav today charged the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre with trying to drag the President’s office into a controversy over dismissing a democratically elected government.

Before leaving for Patna, the RJD president, who was in the Capital on his return from Mumbai, where he had gone to address a rally organised by the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM), said, "If Article 356 was applicable to Bihar, then why not to the other states, where the BJP was in power." He demanded to know under which constitutional provision could President’s rule be imposed in Bihar.

The RJD chief, who has been saying over the past few days that a conspiracy was being hatched by the BJP and the Samata Party to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Bihar, alleged that the Centre was trying to derive political mileage. In the process the Centre was ignoring the plight of lakhs of people who had been severely affected by floods in Bihar.

While the need of the hour was to provide relief to the flood victims in the state, the Centre was trying to play ‘dirty politics’. The Centre was seeking short term ‘political gains’ by resorting to such tactics. Besides, the BJP was also trying to keep its allies at the Centre in good humour to ensure that it stayed in power. The threats, he said, were a direct attack on the country’s federal system.

He also referred to the recent visit by Central teams to the flood-affected regions of Bihar and said that these teams had gone there for "political purposes".

No Central assistance for flood relief had been received so far by the state. While the Prime Minister had visited flood-affected areas in Uttar Pradesh, where his party was in power, he ‘had not cared’ for the miseries of flood victims in Bihar, Mr Yadav added.