Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday met Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah to discuss special category status for Bihar and the government’s review petition on a Supreme Court judgement on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“Bihar is one of the poorest states,” Paswan told PTI. “So many states are demanding it [special category]. Bihar deserves it.”
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been demanding a special status for his state for a long time. In March, Kumar said that he had not given up the demand “for even one second” since he first raised it in 2005.
Paswan, who was joined by his son Chirag Paswan for the meeting, also sought an ordinance to restore the original provisions of the SC/ST law. On March 20, the Supreme Court said that a public servant accused under the law cannot be taken into custody until an officer, not below the rank of deputy superintendent, conducts a preliminary inquiry. Last month, the court said that it had never said that conducting a preliminary inquiry was necessary. It, however, declined to issue an interim stay on its verdict.
“The government has filed review petition, court is closed, so we demanded ordinance for it,” Paswan told ANI. “Also demanded ordinance for reservation in promotion. He [Amit Shah] agreed that decision should be taken soon.”
In March, Paswan told Reuters that the BJP was struggling to change its anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit image. He warned his alliance partner that the Opposition could exploit its pro-upper class Hindu image, and advised the BJP to counter this aggressively.
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