Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday launched a three-pronged attack on ally BJP over its opposition to open-air namaz, denial of special category status to Bihar and delay in Covid-19 genome sequencing.

Senior BJP leaders in Bihar, including panchayati raj minister Samrat Choudhary and MLA Haribhushan Thakur ‘Bachaul’, had recently demanded a ban on namaz at public places in the state following Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s statements that namaz in the open would not be tolerated.

“Is this any issue? We have nothing to do with such things here. Somebody prays in the open, somebody sings in the open. What is the meaning of such things? All are equal for us and we take everybody along,” Nitish said on the sidelines of his janta durbar.

The chief minister, without taking any names, agreed that people might have their personal opinions but asserted: “I do not know why people make an issue of such things. They are meaningless to me.”

Nitish also referred to the rising cases of Covid-19 in the state and said fresh guidelines would be issued. “All religions should follow them. At present, some relaxation has been given for marriages, but large-scale functions in public places cannot be organised,” he said.

The chief minister also expressed worry over the government’s inability to know whether the new Covid-19 cases being detected in the state were being caused by the earlier variants of the virus or the omicron variant. “Corona cases have been rising in Bihar over the last few days, but we are unable to know whether they are due to omicron or any previous variant. We have been sending samples (to the Centre) but no reports have come so far. This delay is not a good thing. We are now trying to arrange for (genome sequencing) tests here at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS),” Nitish said.

At present, Bihar sends samples of Covid-19 patients to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) — a central government organisation under the ministry of health and family welfare in New Delhi — for genome sequencing.

Nitish also brought up the Niti Aayog reports ranking Bihar at the bottom of development indices and pitched for a special category status for Bihar. “The Niti Aayog has confirmed in its reports that ours is the most backward state in the country. It should decide whether developed states are to be transformed or the backward states. If the backwards states are not developed then how India will be transformed?” he said.

The Bihar chief minister said his government had again sent a letter to the Centre to demand the “special category status”.

“Our state’s per capita income was Rs 7,914 per annum in 2004-05. It increased to Rs 50,735 per annum in 2019-20. You can understand the kind of development work we have done in all sectors. However, the per capita income of the country in 2019-20 was Rs 1.34 lakh. We are just around 40 per cent of it,” he said.

Nitish argued that though his government had worked very hard for Bihar’s development, it would progress more if it was granted the special category status.

“Special category status will ensure that the ratio of expenditure in the centrally-sponsored schemes will become 90:10 for the Centre and the state, respectively, from the present 60:40 or 50:50. Our money will be saved and we will spend it on many other development schemes. Bihar will progress speedily,” the chief minister said.

The status also grants tax exemptions to attract investments, concessions on excise duty, debt relief and preferential treatment in the allocation of central funds.

Nitish has been raising the demand since 2005. The state legislature passed a unanimous resolution in 2006 in its support and forwarded it to the Centre. He also launched special campaigns to demand it.

Earlier, the National Development Council granted the special category status, but now the Centre has the power to do so.

However, the 14th Finance Commission has scrapped the grant of the status to states barring the northeastern and three hill states.