Patna: With the expansion of cabinet time has come for Bihar BJP to fulfil the promises of Atmanirbhar Bihar or self-reliant Bihar which the party made during the assembly poll.
In the run-up to the assembly poll in Bihar, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had once said that self-reliant Bihar is a must for Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Not only this even BJP manifesto during state poll stated- “Atmanirbhar Bihar Ka Roadmap 2020-25. Lakshya (objective).
With an aim to achieve the target, BJP chose to induct young faces in comparison with old guards who have been now sidelined. Though the party gave tickets to few old guards but chose the young one to lead the battle in the cabinet.
The way BJP has come out from the time of L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi at national level something similar has happened in Bihar after the party emerged as a big brother. BJP completely sidelined the old guards like Nand Kishore Yadav, Vinod Narayan Jha and Prem Kumar to promote the new face so that Atmanirbhar Bihar could be achieved.
The faces like Shahnawaz Hussain, Nitin Navin, Neeraj Kumar Babloo and Janak Ram as cabinet minister are part of the strategy.
This may be the reason that Hussain while taking charge of the industry department today said that he will appeal industrialists and young entrepreneurs to invest in Bihar so that more job opportunities could be created.
Not to forget that during the Bihar poll, BJP has promised employment to 19 lakhs people.
The department which has maximum chances of creating jobs has gone to the BJP kitty like road construction, panchayati raj, co-operative, art culture and youth affairs.
“With the blessing of Narendra Modi ji we have a very good team in the Bihar cabinet. There are many Biharis who run big industries all over India and abroad and I will appeal to them to set up similar industries in Bihar as well so that more people could get employment, “said Hussain.
The young ministers have been given the responsibility to ensure that inclusive growth must take place in the state by providing basic amenities to the people of Bihar. Out of 16 ministers of BJP, 14 are new faces and below 50 in age.
Panchayati Raj department minister Samrat Choudhary said, “Through the responsibility which I have been given I will make panchayat Atmanirbhar and in a similar way people in other fields will become Atmanirbhar through other departments.”
According to the sources, it was part of the strategy to promote the young faces so that the promises of Atmanirbhar Bihar could be achieved as the old school of thought is no more relevant in the present scenario.
Mines and geology department minister Janak Ram stressed that soon after the cabinet expansion a cabinet meeting was held at the old secretariat in which the main agenda was how to provide jobs to the unemployed people.
“The main agenda of the very first cabinet meeting of the new team was creating job opportunities. I am sure that we will achieve our goal of Atmanirbhar Bihar as youths have a lot of expectations from BJP, “Ram said.
Another BJP minister who looks after the art culture and youth affairs department said that day is not far when Bihar will become an Atmanirbhar state in next five years.
Even political expert Sanjay Kumar described it as a well-executed plan to achieve the goal.
“Inducting a leader like Shahnawaz Hussain in the state cabinet as industry minister who had experience in union cabinet clearly reflects their seriousness. As Bihar is mostly dependent on agriculture the industry department will do their best to create jobs through MSME or food processing unit. Most of the BJP ministers are young and they are energetic and enthusiastic. Taking all the perspective in serious consideration BJP will go to any extent to make Bihar an Atmanirbhar state, “Kumar asserted.
