PATNA: Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said the opposition may boycott the remaining assembly tenure if chief minister Nitish Kumar does not apologise for the "unprecedented misbehaviour" with the opposition legislators in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday. He also demanded action against officials involved in the "manhandling" of the MLAs, including women members.
“My name is Tejashwi. CM Nitish & his puppet officers must know that no govt is permanent. MLAs were abused and beaten inside the assembly. They have set an unparliamentary trend. If CM does not apologise for the incident, we may boycott the assembly for the remaining tenure (sic),” read a tweet posted by Tejashwi on Wednesday.
RJD, Congress and the Left parties also issued a joint statement on Wednesday dubbing the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, as an unconstitutional bill that would transform the police into a militia.
Interacting with the media outside the assembly, the younger Yadav scion said no one remains in power forever. The present CM will one day become an ex-CM, and the same police will thrash him using the same law after entering his house.
Tejashwi and his elder brother Tej Pratap, along with other opposition leaders, posted a series of tweets attacking the Nitish government over Tuesday’s incident.
Opposition MLAs also held a joint meeting on Wednesday and demanded stern action against officials involved in beating the legislators. “The entire opposition held a meeting and we all condemned the incident which occurred on Tuesday. We all have the footage of how some officials were kicking and hitting MLAs. Never in the history of the entire country has such an incident of officials beating MLAs inside the assembly has occurred. We will boycott the session till action is taken against such officials,” said Congress legislative party leader Ajit Sharma.
Former CMs Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi also came down heavily on the government, especially CM Nitish, for Tuesday’s incident.
However, former deputy CM and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi criticised the opposition for creating confusion over the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, and compared their protest with that of the farmer’s protest at the Delhi border.
“The way a few so-called leaders tried to provoke the police on January 26 and compelled them to shoot by deviating from the decided route, in the same way, RJD intended to compel the police to call the marshals inside the House,” read a part of SuMo’s tweet.