Express News Service
PATNA: Six days after Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s controversial statement on Bhojpuri and Magahi –Bihar’s regional dialects –, his counterpart Nitish Kumar has said that Bihar and Jharkhand are brothers. “Those who don’t realise this make such statements,” he added while talking to the media after holding the weekly ‘Junta Ke Darwar Me Mukhyamantri” programme on Monday
Earlier, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren had accused Bhojpuri and Magahi-speaking people of undivided Bihar for torturing other people during the movement for Jharkhand statehood was waging.
“The people of Bihar have immense love for Jharkhand and in the same way and vice versa,” Nitish Kumar stated. He said that Jharkhand was carved out from Bihar in 2000 and since then both the states are like brothers.
He obliquely slammed Soren for the statement and asserted there is no need to divide the border with languages.
It was on Tuesday during a zoom interview that Hemant Soren made the controversial remark. Nitish Kumar added that Bihar and Jharkhand belong to the one old family and still have love and belongingness to each other. “There is no need for Bihar to speak on Jharkhand and Jharkhand on Bihar. Earlier, the people from Bihar used to go to Jharkhand to work but not anymore. There was despair in Bihar due to the bifurcation ”, Nitish Kumar said.Hemant Soren had said that the Bhojpuri and the Magahi of Bihar have never been regional languages. “They are borrowed languages and the speakers of these languages were dominating persons”, Hemant had alleged. He had further asserted that the Biharikaran (Biharisation) of Jharkhand cannot be allowed.
Nitish Kumar categorically denied that the people of Bihar speaking Bhojpuri and Magahi were dominant against anyone. As per data, Bhojpuri is spoken by nearly 52,245,300 people followed by approximately 14,035,600 Magahi speakers.
Earlier, the BJP leaders in Bihar had slammed the Jharkhand CM, terming the statement to be extremely objectionable and intended to create a division between the people of two states for political sake.
