While campaigning in Bihar's Katihar on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath promised to root out "Bangla infiltrators". "PM Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre has adopted a policy in this regard. Under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Centre gives citizenship to minority people persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan, but if anyone tries to infiltrate into India, he will be deported," he said, reported Times of India.
A day later, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar—BJP's ally in NDA—hit out against "malicious statements", in a dig seen as directed at Yogi. This also pushes into the spotlight the rift between the BJP and the JD(U) ahead of the election.
Kumar said, reported NDTV: "Who does all this malicious campaigning? Who says all this faltu baat (nonsense)? Who will throw out people? No one dares do that. Everyone belongs to this country, everyone is Indian. Who talks like this? Our effort is to work for harmony, unity and brotherhood so there can be progress."
Early this year, amid raging protests over Citizenship Amendment Act and an all India NRC, he had asserted that a nationwide implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was needless and had no justification.
Speaking in the state legislative assembly in January this year, Kumar had said that NRC was an exercise confined to Assam as part of the accord signed by the Rajiv Gandhi government. "A nationwide NRC would be needless [koi zarurat nahin hai] and has no justification [koi auchitya nahin hai]. We do not think any such thing is going to take place. I think the prime minister, too, has spoken clearly on this", he had said.
Training guns at his political adversaries, without taking any names, Kumar said "some people want to promote fight between castes and religious groups". His barb seems to be directed at AIMIM and some other opposition parties. Kumar said his government has always worked for all sections of the society and promoted communal harmony in the state. He continued to attack principal rival, the RJD, and said they "wasted" time when they were in power for 15 years and did not do any development work.
-Inputs from PTI
