Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar said that as the head of the state it is his moral responsibility to ensure that the students from the state who go to other states for studies are not harassed. He was addressing his first ever press conference in New Delhi after taking over as the chief minister of the state at a high tea hosted by Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley.
Senior party leaders including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party president L K Advani were absent.
"I spoke to the Maharashtra chief minister the same night when the incident took place and asked him to ensure the safety of the students from Bihar. As head of my state I would take up this issue wherever possible. I want to make it clear that Mumbai is more a place for the people of the state but that does not mean it is any less for those who come from outside.
"Students are as free to study any where," he said in response to a question that Mumbai is not the only place where the students from the state are mistreated. Bihari students were made targets in Assam as well."
Responding to a query about the statement given by Pramod Mahajan that Nitish should have consulted him before giving a reaction to the media, he said that there was no need for consultations." I had come out of my meeting with the prime minister when the media persons asked me about the statement supposedly made by Mahajan about the Bihari students. I gave my reaction. Where was the need to discuss," he said with a smile and appealed to the media to burry the hatch and let other works to be carried on.
He claimed that there has been dramatic improvement in the law and order situation of Bihar ever since the new administration has taken over. "There were two kidnappings in Muzaffarpur and the cases were solved in no time and the kidnapped persons were rescued. The morale of the police is very high," he said.
He hoped that the industrialists would come and invest in Bihar once the state law order improves and its finances look up.
Nitish Kumar called on President A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday evening along with his deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and invited him to visit the state. The President is likely to visit Bihar on December 19 and again later in February 2006.
