Famous poet Dushyant once wrote: “Hangama Khada Karna Hamara Maksad Nahi, Meri Koshish Hai Ki Surat Badalni Chahiye (It is not my intention to kick up a din, I’m trying to bring change).”
This famous line has been used by many leaders during political rallies but the values have no meaning in current politics in Bihar. The leaders were involved only in “hangama” for the last five days of the monsoon session and matters of public issues were ignored. There were 823 questions listed in this session and 704 were accepted by the Speaker.
People question the need for such a session where legislators are get Dearness Allowance (DA) and other perks only to create a ruckus in and outside of Assembly and Council at the cost of taxpayers’ money.
As per an official, close to Rs 1 crore is one day’s cost of running Bihar Vidhan Mandal (Assembly and Council). Besides, legislators also get DA to the tune of Rs 50 lakh.
The monsoon session of Bihar Vidhan Sabha started on July 10 with an address by Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary. There was no question hour on that day. The Speaker had announced the name of the presiding officer and a supplementary budget was put on the table. The session went on for only half an hour.
On the second day of the Monsoon session, the session went on for just six minutes in the first half and 20 minutes in the second half without any question hour or parliamentary proceedings. Due to the ruckus, a reporting table placed in the well of the house was broken.
On July 12, the assembly began at the scheduled time and the leader of opposition was given a chance to speak in the house. There were three questions asked and then leader of opposition Vijay Sinha blamed the Speaker for taking the side of ruling Mahagathbandhan leaders.
That led to a ruckus and the session was finally adjourned after 31 minutes. During the ruckus, two chairs in the well were also broken on that day.
On July 13, BJP legislators created a ruckus inside the house as soon as the question hour started. The situation compounded to the extent that the Speaker directed Marshalls to take Jivesh Mishra and Engineer Shailendra out of the house.
Following that incident, BJP legislators walked out from the house and sat on Dharna in the first half. In the second half, they went to Gandhi Maidan to participate in the protest march. Majority of them were arrested on that day after lathi charge at Dak Bungalow Chowk. As a result, they failed to reach Vidhan Sabha.
On July 14, BJP decided to celebrate black day against the death of one of its leaders Vijay Singh and lathi charge. Some leaders of BJP came to the assembly and created a ruckus.
During that period, BJP MLA Sanjay Singh tried to take off his shirt after climbing on the reporting table and was eventually marshaled out of the house.
Many legislators were displeased due to frequent adjournment of the house. The ruling party’s leaders blamed BJP for creating ruckus inside the house and disrupting the proceedings.
“This is a small session of just 5 days and we were prepared to ask questions about the issues related to the public but BJP leaders are not allowing the house to run smoothly. They unnecessarily disrupted the proceedings of the house on all five days. They have pulled chairs in such a manner that it would be a threat to the legislators. It is unparliamentary and objectionable,” said Shalini Mishra, MLA of JD-U.
Sangeeta Kumari, the MLA of RJD said: “They have destroyed democracy in Maharashtra and made deputy CM a person who is corrupt. It is the double standards of BJP which is appearing in public. They pulled the chair and tried to attack legislators.”
The biggest issues for BJP were the charge-sheet of Tejashwi Yadav. The leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha slammed the Nitish Kumar government for keeping a charge-sheeted person on a Constitutional post.
“It is not the FIR that happened on Tejashwi Yadav. He is charge-sheeted in land-for-job case and he has no right to stay on the Constitutional post. Despite all that, he is still sitting on the post and Nitish Kumar is not insisting on his resignation,” Sinha said.
“Nitish Kumar’s zero tolerance is just an eyewash. He has compromised with corruption. When an FIR was registered on Jitan Ram Manjhi, Nitish Kumar had him resign,” Sinha said.
Besides, domicile policy for the recruitments of teachers, rising incidents of crime, corruption like Aguwani Ghat Khagaria bridge collapse are the other issues BJP was raising.