The Bihar Assembly remained paralysed for the second consecutive day on Wednesday when opposition members continued to stall proceedings, adamant on the demand of an apology from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the alleged insult of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha.
The principal opposition party, the RJD, appeared to be in a conciliatory mood when the House assembled for the post-lunch session. However, it was now the turn of the Left parties which together have 20-odd MLAs who trooped into the well, shouting slogans against the Chief Minister, who was said to be away in his home district of Nalanda.
A demand for the power department's budgetary allocation was moved by minister Bijendra Kumar Yadav to which RJD chief whip Lalit Yadav proposed a cut motion. The RJD leader thereafter pointed to the cacophony and urged the Chair to set the House in order.
Members from the treasury benches reacted to the din with bemusement and annoyance even as the Speaker kept pleading that proceedings be allowed, given that only two days were left before Holi vacation begins. After pleading with the unruly members for some time, a visibly tired Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 4PM. Earlier, the day had begun on a stormy note when the Speaker took the Chair, a day after having excused himself, apparently miffed over the slight at the hands of the Chief Minister on Monday.
The Speaker and the Chief Minister had met late Tuesday night in an attempt at reconciliation. Statements by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, who belongs to the Chief Minister's JD(U) and Deputy CM Tarkishor Prasad, a BJP leader, were followed by an appeal by the Speaker himself that the kaala adhyay (dark chapter) be closed and forgotten.
A BJP leader himself, the Speaker had closed his speech with a few verses from late Atal Bihari Vajpayee's poem kadam milakar chalna hoga (we shall march together, matching steps). However, the opposition leaders were unrelenting in their demands for a safaai (explanation) and maafi by the septuagenarian Chief Minister whose burst of anger has been widely reported in the media.
The House, which had assembled at 11 AM, was adjourned till 2 PM, within less than half an hour of commencement of proceedings. At the centre of the controversy is the arrest of some people, close to the BJP, for violation of prohibition law in Lakhisarai, which is represented by Sinha, during the Saraswati Puja celebrations last month.
Sinha had been livid that while mere spectators were rounded up, organisers of the event, said to be close to JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, had been allowed to go scot free. On Monday, an MLA had raised a query inside the House as to whether there have been any kurki-jabti (attachment of property) of the organisers, in accordance with the provisions of the prohibition law.
Minister Bijendra Yadav, a veteran JD(U) leader, replied on behalf of the government that investigations were on. The Speaker asked the minister to apprise the House of the progress in the matter two days later which evoked a stunning outburst from the Chief Minister.
The veteran leader had underscored that he was serving his fourth term in office and had been a member of the House once but never did he see a matter under investigation by the police being raised on the floor of the assembly again and again. Notably, the House had witnessed uproarious scenes on more than one occasion last week when opposition members raised the issue of disrespect shown towards the Speaker by police officials concerned in Lakhisarai.
The opposition members' contention is that the matter, which has also been referred to the Privilege Committee, scheduled to meet later this month, involved the prestige of the House and high-handedness of bureaucracy. Opposition leaders have deplored the body language of the CM who spoke in an admonitory tone, waving an angry finger at the Speaker. Ruckus created by them had similarly paralysed the House on the previous day.
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