“There was no purpose of attending the Niti Ayog meeting in New Delhi. We are asking for giving the status of special category to Bihar for the last so many years, but nothing has been done so far,” said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while talking to reporters here on Saturday.

“What is the point in attending such meetings when our justified demands are not heard,” he asked, adding, today Bihar would have been a developed state if only we had the status of special category.

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“Whatever we do for the development of the state we do within the limited resources that we have. The Centre has not been cooperative in disbursing adequate funds for development purposes,” he lamented.

When asked about the inauguration of the new Parliament building, he categorically said that there was no need to construct a new building which will erase the history of our independence. The existing building, which is a part of our constitution, should be repaired/refurbished only if it was needed, he said, adding “they are changing the history of India, this is unacceptable for us”.

“The BJP government is already in the process of changing the history of India by removing all the footprints of our great leaders and freedom fighters. It is unheard of,” he pointed out.

“I was not in favour of constructing new buildings since the very beginning. What was the necessity to construct a separate new structure,” he asked.

The Bihar CM asked why the government had not started conducting a census in 2021 like the previous government had done it in 2011. “When I started conducting caste and socio economic surveys in Bihar, these BJP leaders started questioning it,” he pointed out.

On the question of withdrawing Rs 2,000-denomination currency notes, he said nobody is questioning why the Centre had withdrawn Rs 1,000-denomination currency notes instead of launching Rs 2-k notes in 2016. “Again after five years, they have decided to withdraw it. I failed to understand the logic behind it,” he said.

Making a comment on the media, CM said, “Now journalists have no guts to ask questions because they have lost their freedom to ask questions. Earlier, journalists were free to ask searching questions, but now they are afraid to do so.”

BJP state president Samrat Choudhary called it unfortunate that Bihar that CM has not gone to attend Niti Ayog meeting in Delhi. “It’s a great loss to Bihar and its people. The CM is bent upon destroying Bihar to satisfy his ego,” he said and added that it’s an insult to democracy and his anti-development approach.”