Kamal Nath had said, 'Lot of industries are set up in which people from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, come to work. I do not want to criticise them, but the youth of Madhya Pradesh remain deprived.'
Ruling NDA constituents JD(U) and BJP on Tuesday flayed the Congress over Madhya Pradesh's newly-appointed Chief Minister Kamal Nath's comments that locals in his state remain deprived of jobs due to migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh getting jobs there.
Kamal Nath's statement also met with disapproval from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an ally of the Congress in Bihar, which said such remarks should be avoided.
However, the state unit of the Congress hit back, saying the Madhya Pradesh chief minister was talking about providing employment to the people of his own state and it should be a priority of those ruling Bihar as well.
Soon after being sworn in on Monday, Nath had said in Bhopal, "Lot of industries are set up in which people from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, come to work. I do not want to criticise them, but the youth of Madhya Pradesh remain deprived."
The Congress leader had said his government would provide incentives to industries that provide 70 per cent of their jobs to people of Madhya Pradesh.
Terming Nath's statement "deplorable", Bihar BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) president Nityanand Rai alleged the Congress has started spewing the venom of parochialism no sooner than it won power in Madhya Pradesh.
"It should apologise to the people of UP and Bihar, though this may be expecting too much from a party which is yet to express regret over the role of its Gujarat MLA Alpesh Thakore in attacks on Biharis in the western state," he said.
Neeraj Kumar, MLC and spokesman of the Janata Dal (United) which is headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said it is ironical that Congress president Rahul Gandhi goes on ranting about the Constitution being under threat by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre but a senior leader of his own party takes a stand that is nothing short of an assault on the federal structure of the country.
RJD MLA and spokesman Bhai Virendra said such comments should be avoided as every citizen of the country is free to live and work anywhere.
Responding to the controversy, Bihar Congress working president Kaukab Qadri said Nath was not spreading hatred against the people of UP and Bihar, or threatening to drive them out, something which was witnessed in the BJP-ruled Gujarat and which has been a pet theme of Shiv Sena, the BJP's ally in Maharashtra.
He said the thrust of Kamal Nath was on giving incentives to employment-generating industries in the state he will be governing.
"Herein lies a lesson for UP and Bihar where the political leadership seems to have abdicated its responsibility towards its talented and hard-working youths who have to fend for themselves outside their home states," Qadri alleged.