Bihar: Nitish Kumar's minister refuses to wear skull cap during Muslim event, sparks row

Stroking a controversy, a JDU minister has refused to wear a skull cap at a conference of the Muslim community in Bihar. When Bijendra Prasad Yadav, who is the Minister of Energy in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, was offered a skull cap during Talimi Bedari (Educational Awareness) conference in Katihar, he refused to put in on his head.

PATNA: Stroking a controversy, a JDU minister has refused to wear a skull cap at a conference of the Muslim community in Bihar. When Bijendra Prasad Yadav, who is the Minister of Energy in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, was offered a skull cap during Talimi Bedari (Educational Awareness) conference in Katihar, he refused to put in on his head.

Yadav, who is considered the third senior-most minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet after deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, instead of wearing it, passed the cap to a person standing behind him.

The video of this incident has gone viral on the internet and sparked a controversy in the political circles of Bihar. While the opposition parties have slammed Yadav's gesture as an insult towards a community, the JDU has defended his action saying the minister had accepted the cap but didn't wear it because of too much heat.

The event was organised on September 30.

Reacting over Yadav’s refusal to wear skull cap, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said the JDU is now fully controlled by the BJP and working on the agenda of the saffron party.

Danish Rizwan, a spokesperson of Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha, hit out at Yadav and the JDU saying Nitish's party is following the RSS' ideology.