Opposition latches onto misprinted letter to allege NRC has begun in Bihar

A bizarre drama unfolded in Bihar on Friday when opposition parties, including the RJD, accused the Nitish Kumar government of having started the work on the National Register of Citizens based on a letter that had a printing error and was immediately withdrawn.

RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the opposition in the assembly, and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha tweeted photographs of a three-day-old missive which, the state government pointed out, was promptly withdrawn and a corrigendum issued.

Issued on January 28 by the Block Development Officer of Mokamah in rural Patna, the letter was issued to principals of government schools who had failed to send names of two teachers from their institutions, by January 23, for training for the ongoing census exercise.

The letter made a mention of personal details of the teachers being required for NRC and the principals were rebuked for apparently being opposed to NRC at the instance of some specific political party.

Sharing a screenshot of the letter on his Twitter handle, Yadav, who served as Bihar deputy CM for more than a year, said, "White lie of Nitish Kumar caught. Now you all have to decide who the real Sanghi is".

Kushwaha wrote, "@NitishKumar ji, you left even the BJP behind. PM @narendramodi says NRC has not even been discussed and you got orders passed. And you have the temerity to accuse school principals of collusion with a political party?"