New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) The Congress took a dig at the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar for the unruly scenes in the state assembly Tuesday as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the opposition party leaders for creating a ruckus in the house.
Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said that dialogue was the best solution to any issue in a democracy but added that a government sometimes behaves irresponsibly, forcing public representatives to act in a manner not suitable to public life.
The BJP, however, blamed the opposition for the unruly scenes, saying they were ‘aggressively trying to come back to power’.
‘There are some people in Bihar, who have been out of power for a long time and they are aggressively trying to come back to power,’ BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here without naming the opposition parties or its leaders.
Former chief minister Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is the main opposition party in the state.
Ahmed told IANS: ‘There is no place of violence and public representatives should keep this in mind… Sometimes irresponsible behaviour of the government forces the public representatives to indulge in such action which is detrimental to public life.’
Asked about the party’s stance to the Patna High Court order for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged irregularities in withdrawal of over Rs.11,000 crore from the state treasury, he said it was a serious matter.
‘It happened during the governments of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. The state unit has sought resignation of the present chief minister and his deputy and we support the demand,’ he said, adding that any demand should be made in a non-violent manner.
Four legislators were injured in clashes between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition members in the state assembly Tuesday over alleged financial irregularities in the state.
Rudy said the state’s ruling coalition of the BJP and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) ‘is responsible to the people of Bihar’.
On the Patna High Court order for a CBI probe into the alleged financial irregularities, Rudy said: ‘We are aware of what the court had directed. We will prove to the people and the court that we are for the development of the state.’
The state government has appealed against the decision.
Opposition members demanded the resignation of Nitish Kumar, who is among the 47 people named in a complaint alleging irregularities of Rs.11,412 crore but this was stoutly resisted by NDA members.
Angry members from both sides advanced to the reporters’ table in front of the speaker’s podium, uprooted it and started throwing chairs at each other, leading to injuries to four legislators.
Nitish Kumar, who was present in the house, appealed for calm but this was ignored, prompting Speaker Udai Narayan Choudhry to adjourn the house for the day.
The opposition then staged a sit-in within the assembly premises.
–Indo-Asian News service
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