Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday strongly criticized the media for distorting his statement on the inter-caste marriage given on Thursday.
Speaking at the function organized to release the book, ‘Sashaktikaran’ (Empowerment), written by IG(Weaker Sections) Arvind Pandey he went to the extent of calling journalists as ‘uchchaka’. He refuted the charge that he advised Scheduled Caste people to increase their population from 15 % to 22% to strengthen their political empowerment.
Incidentally, various television channels, as well as print media, quoted him at Kalyan (Welfare) Hostel on Thursday as saying exactly the same.
However, on Saturday he said he was extremely hurt and pained at the way the media had ‘distorted’ him. The chief minister’s statement came after the BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and even his own party, Janata Dal (United), spokesman, K C Tyagi, objected to his reported remarks on increasing the Dalit population by encouraging inter-caste marriages.
The chief minister said he was talking only about the unity among all the Scheduled Castes and advised them to opt for inter-caste marriage. This would help enhance the social harmony and also make them feel stronger.
Manjhi said he belongs to that section of the society which had always been at the receiving end adding that the Scheduled Castes register themselves in the census record as belonging to different sub-castes of SC. If they register themselves as SC, that number would go up. He claimed that he strongly believes that their number would increase to at least 21%.