Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday decided to send a team of senior state government officials to Tamil Nadu for looking into allegations of attacks on migrants, which snowballed into a major issue notwithstanding vehement denials by the southern state.
Leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, after a meeting with the CM, claimed that the state government has agreed to a proposal to also send an all-party delegation to the southern state on Friday.
According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office, it was decided that the team will include officials from the police department while the Chief Secretary and the DGP here have been directed "to keep a constant watch" on the situation in Tamil Nadu.
"The government is fully sensitive towards the matter," asserted the statement.
According to highly placed sources, the team is scheduled to leave on Saturday and likely to comprise four officials, two of them with roots in Tamil Nadu which will enable them to get "internal feedback", cutting through the barriers posed by language.
The move came even as deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, while speaking in the state assembly earlier in the day, sought to go by the version of the Tamil Nadu DGP who has rubbished reports of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in that state.
Yadav, incidentally, has also faced flak from the opposition BJP in Bihar for having visited Tamil Nadu amid the crisis to attend a function organised on the occasion of the birthday of M K Stalin, the chief minister of the southern state.
Stalin heads the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which like Yadav's Rastriya Janata Dal is an alliance partner of the Congress and the Left.
The BJP was predictably dissatisfied with the stance adopted by Yadav and its members staged a walkout soon after Yadav finished speaking.
During lunch hour, BJP legislators from both Houses met the chief minister and Sinha, the LoP, spoke to journalists after the meeting.
"The chief minister has agreed to our proposal that an all-party delegation visit Tamil Nadu tomorrow. He also summoned the Chief Secretary and the DGP to send some officials to that state," said Sinha, who seemed vindicated after having been snubbed by Yadav and Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary for demanding that a committee of the House be sent to the southern province.
However, parties other than the BJP were tight-lipped on visiting Tamil Nadu as part of the 'all-party delegation'.
Detractors of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, meanwhile, seemed to be having a field day.
Jamui MP Chirag Paswan, the most ardent critic of Nitish Kumar, shot off a letter to the CM blaming him for the economic situation in Bihar which necessitates migration to other states on a large scale.
Paswan also wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him to intervene in the matter for the benefit of the people of Bihar and shared the same on social media, tagging among others, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Political strategist turned activist Prashant Kishor, who is trying to carve out a niche for himself in the state's turbulent politics, criticised Nitish Kumar for "leaving everything to officials, himself not bothering to even have a word with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu" while taunting Tejashwi Yadav for "celebrating birthday of that state's CM when his own people were being beaten up".
