Bihar CM to visit China on June 12

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on Monday once again deplored the midnight police action against yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his supporters at Ramlila ground in Delhi and said the Centre should explain its position on the police action to the Supreme Court. The apex court has issued notice to the Centre on a petition filed before it in this connection.

“Only Congress can do this. On the one hand, it was paying reverence to the Baba and on the other hand police swooped on him. Some leaders of Congress were holding parleys with Baba and some were abusing him,” Nitish said taking a dig at Congress. “All democratic forces are now united against the Centre,” he added.

The CM was, however, non-committal when asked if he would invite Baba to stage satyagraha at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. “Invitation is not extended for holding protests,” he said.

Referring to his upcoming weeklong China visit beginning June 12, Nitish said the visit is under the exchange programme between the two neighbouring countries. “The visit has been finalized following the initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs and the invitation extended by the Chinese envoy to me. The delegation will visit Beijing, Shanghai and one more place before returning on June 18, and hold talks on bilateral issues,” he said.

The official delegation led by Nitish will include water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chowdhary, tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pinto, development commissioner K C Saha, CM’s secretaries S Siddhartha and Atish Chandra. President of Bihar Chamber of Commerce O P Sah and Bihar Industries Association’s president S P Sinha will be non-official members of the eight-member delegation who will go at their own expense.

The CM said he was not sure that the current situation in the country could lead to midterm elections. “Congress knows ‘jugad’ (manoeuvring) to cobble a majority. There are several parties which can extend support to the UPA government. There is hardly any chance of a snap poll,” he said.

At the Janata Darbar, where cases related to police and revenue departments were taken up, about 1,200 applicants turned up with their grievances. The CM, however, said about 90% cases were related to family feuds.