The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) yesterday, demanded an apology from Kamal Nath, the Chief Minister (CM) of Madhya Pradesh. Kamal Nath, after being sworn in as the CM on Monday, addressed a press conference and commented about migrants from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar coming to Madhya Pradesh in search of work.
Kamal Nath, while addressing the press conference on Monday, said, “Lot of industries are set up in which people from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, come to work. I don’t want to criticise them, but the young people of Madhya Pradesh remain deprived.”
The comment led to the Congress party getting criticised by political parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the BJP.
Nityanand Rai, the BJP President of Bihar, said, the statement was ‘deplorable.’ He further said, the Congress party is showing their toxic and narrow mentality and engaging in parochialism (focusing only on locals) soon after winning the Madhya Pradesh elections.
Apart from the BJP President, Giriraj Kishore, a BJP Union Minister, said, “The people of Bihar and UP work hard for development of the states they go to. Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the people of Bihar and UP or else people will give him an answer.”
However, Kaukab Qadri, the President of the Congress, clarified the doubts surrounding Mr. Nath’s comment and said, “Herein lies a lesson for UP and Bihar where the political leadership seems to have abdicated its responsibility towards its talented and hard working youths who have to fend for themselves outside their home states.”
Mr. Qadri said, Kamal Nath’s intentions were pure and he was not spreading hatred toward the people of UP and Bihar, but was concerned about the unemployed people of Madhya Pradesh.
Mr. Qadri also highlighted the policies of Gujarat and Maharashtra to give more jobs to the locals instead of the outsiders. Vijay Rupani, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, announced, it was mandatory for industries in Gujarat to provide 85 % of their jobs to the locals. Similarly, BJP’s ally, Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra, follows the same policy.
One of the few schemes going to be implemented in Madhya Pradesh by Kamal Nath is the provision of incentives related to investments to those industries which provide 70 % jobs to the locals.
