Prashant Kishor demands pay parity for Bihar's migrants in Gujarat

Kishor made the demand hours before Amit Shah was scheduled to land in the Bihar capital on a two-day tour of the state

Jan Suraaj Party leader Prashant Kishor on Saturday demanded pay parity for migrant labourers from Bihar working in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Kishor made the demand hours before Shah was scheduled to land in the Bihar capital on a two-day tour of the state.

The former poll strategist told reporters in Purnea district, "There is nothing extraordinary about Shah visiting Bihar today. Assembly elections are likely to be announced in six months from now. During the period, we can brace for many tours of Shah and Modi."  "For six months, they will try to behave as if Bihar is a top priority. Paeans will be sung to the state's glorious past. Even the launch of projects elsewhere will be scheduled on the soil of this state. But once the polls are over, Bihar will be off their radar till the next elections," Kishor remarked sarcastically.

"I challenge Amit Shah to do just one thing. Let him ensure that labourers from Bihar toiling away in the factories of Gujarat get the same pay as their local counterparts. A lot has been said about people migrating to the western state in search of livelihood. But people are hardly aware that there is a world of difference in the wages paid, for the same type of work, to Gujarati labourers and Bihari migrants," he claimed.

Kishor, whose first claim to fame was handling the Lok Sabha polls campaign of Modi in 2014, alleged that "all good things, in the last 11 years, have been reserved for Gujarat".

"Even the proposed bullet train will run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, even though the two cities are already very well connected. Yet, a sum of Rs 1 lakh crore has been borrowed from Japan for the project," he said.

"It must be stressed that the debt for the bullet train is on the Government of India and not on Gujarat. We can say that by virtue of its share in the country's population, Bihar is sharing 13 per cent of the burden. I say, let the people of Gujarat enjoy their bullet train. But should Bihar not get even a passenger train?" he said.

"Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is an old BJP ally. He begged for central status to Patna University, with folded hands, only to be rebuffed by the Prime Minister," Kishor alleged, referring to an episode in 2017 when Modi was here to attend the varsity's centenary celebrations.

The Jan Suraaj Party founder, who hopes to make a splash in the upcoming assembly polls, added, "I, therefore, tell the people here... enough of voting for those who work only to bring prosperity to Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. No more getting swayed by China and Pakistan rhetoric. Try, just once, voting with the interests of your own children in mind.