Chaos Prevails in Bihar Assembly
Patna: Dec. 12, 2007
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Bedlam Prevails in Bihar Assembly
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Photo by Shashi Uttam |
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The farce that the Bihar Assembly has become in last two years, took yet another beating on Wednesday when the opposition leaders displayed an utter disregard for dignity of the House while the members of the ruling party picked up a member of their own and threw him out of the Assembly for engaging in behavior unbecoming of a legislator.
It was yet another 'normal' day at Bihar Assembly. Accusing the ruling NDA of massive irregularities in the distribution of fertilizer among the Bihar farmers, the opposition led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), going against the established norms of the House, demanded the resignation of the Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh.
"The minister's numbers are based on lies and deceptions and he should be immediately thrown out of the government," RJD leaders Mundrika Singh Yadav yelled.
This led to an uproarious resentment by the Janata Dal (U) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who walked into the well threatening to boycott the rest of the Assembly session until an apology was rendered by the opposition leaders.
An angry Agriculture Minister threatened to resign and after much persuasion and a House adjournment of nearly 45 minutes, 'insanity' was once again restored in the Assembly with the opposition leaders now scrambling to get their voices heard on the issue of unaided education demanding the scrapping of the current government policy on it.
The House was once again adjourned until after the lunch recess.
Pandemonium once again broke out when the RJD leaders accused the ruling parties of 'insulting' the leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi when the security outside the Assembly refused her entry into the building through a gate earlier closed down for security reasons.
Finally, just when people thought things could not go any worse, the expelled Janata Dal (U) leader and legislator Chhedi Ram Paswan, after accusing the Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chowdhary for not giving him adequate time to raise issues of his interest, was physically forced out of the Assembly building for failing to follow the House decorum while engaging in abusive language aimed at the Speaker.
A shouting match between Paswan and the Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav ensued that was only subdued after other leaders from the NDA intervened and forced them to apologize to each other.
The RJD and the Communist Party of India, however, seized the opportunity and pulled out the dalit card to drive a wedge within the NDA saying Paswan's ejection was an 'assault on the backward class' and the ruling party must issue a written apology to him.
Amidst all the chaos, the House somehow managed to pass the Bihar Secretariat Service Act 2007, Bihar PF (Amendment) Act 2007, Bihar Clinical Establishment (Regulation and Control) (Amendment) Act 2007, and the Bihar Research Society (Take Over) Act 2007 by voice vote.
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