Prashant Kishor: 'Only Nitish can tell under what circumstances JD(U) supported CAA'

The Janata Dal (United) vice president and political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday said it is only Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who can tell under what circumstances the party has supported the Citizen (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Kishor also expressed displeasure with JD(U) rendering support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on social media site Twitter and has also met Nitish Kumar on the issue. Some sections of media have reported that Kishor even offered to resign.

'CAA is discriminatory'

Speaking to the media, Kishor termed CAA as "discriminatory", he said, "JD(U) opposed the Bill at every level. I want to make it very clear that JD(U)'s stance on NRC and CAA is of Opposition. Check parliamentary standing committee's record, first dissent note is of JD(U)."

"About JD(U) support during vote (in) which it has supported in both houses, under what circumstance and how JD(U) supported the Bill in both houses only Nitish Kumar Ji can tell. We believe CAA as an act is discriminatory as it is not horrible, if not linked with NRC."

"When you link CAA with NRC it becomes discriminatory not only on the basis of religion but also on the basis of class."

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Kishor also opined NRC should not happen at all."When NRC happens, crores of people, especially the poor if they could not produce required documents, they will face hardship to prove that they and their forefathers are citizens of this country, they will face a loss of income and logistical challenges. This will be a big problem for the poor. So, NRC should not happen at all and this has been JD-U's stance. Nitish Kumar Ji has said that there will be no NRC," Kishor said.

"CAA is not consistent with the provisions in the Constitution which do not give you permission to give citizenship on the basis of religion. In CAA, you are using religion and giving citizenship due to which people from some religion may feel that they are facing discrimination. That itself is a big issue and it should be opposed, but when you link it with NRC then it becomes even more pervasive," he added.

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BJP and JD-U alliance

Further talking about the future of BJP and JD-U alliance, Kishor said that alliance is working out well and there are no issues. He also dwelled on recent poll drubbing of BJP in Jharkhand elections.

Kishor said, "Every election is unique in its own, Lok Sabha was different, state elections are different. There is no pattern linked to different elections, it is a theoretical exercise which you can talk about, you may try to establish the link but every election is different, fought on different faces, different issues, you cannot link. Jharkhand election is different and Bihar is different. An alliance between JD-U and BJP is going on, there are no issues."

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Kishor on IPAC

Kishor, who is one of the founder members of political strategy firm, Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), said him working with JD(U) and advising IPAC is not an ideal situation but it has no conflict of interest.

He said, "There are two things. I am not in the government of Bihar and as far as my other work is concerned, it is in public domain that IPAC is an organization which was started a few years ago. They work with different political parties. IPAC is not my personal property. This a platform for youngsters which provide an opportunity to do work with political campaign and leaders without joining a political party." 

"My link with IPAC is need-based. Whenever they need me only that much time I give. In Bengal, IPAC working with Mamata Ji, I don't spend all the time in Bengal. I'm not involved in TMC or Bengal politics, IPAC is supporting her, whenever IPAC needs me, I assist."

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