RJD MP justifies his action in Rajya Sabha
Rubbishing allegations that he helped the government in choreographing the ruckus in the Rajya Sabha during the late night debate on Lokpal Bill, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, Rajniti Prasad, on Friday claimed that he tore up a copy of the proposed law on the spur of the moment.
“There was no match-fixing between the RJD and Congress in the Rajya Sabha...I reacted angrily to the Bill on the spur of the moment...I have no repentance at all,” said Prasad.
Towards the end of an intense 11-hour-long debate on the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Prasad took away a copy of the Bill from the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, V Narayanasamy and tore the copy of the proposed legislation and threw it in the well of the House, resisting attempts by Minister of State for Planning, Ashwani Kumar, to stop him and ignoring calls by Chairman Hamid Ansari to restrain. The BJP alleged that Prasad’s action save the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government which desperately wanted to avoid voting on the Lokpal Bill.
Murli Manohar Joshi, veteran BJP MP in the Lok Sabha, told journalists in Lucknow on Friday that the way Prasad could tear the Bill without any resistance made it clear that the government had orchestrated the ruckus in the Upper House.
“I tore the Bill, as it was a bad one and was against parliamentarians. We were about to pass a Bill that was against us only,” said Prasad. The RJD MP is believed to be close to the party chief Lalu Prasad. “Since the government did not give any satisfactory reply to our queries regarding how the reservation for SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women would apply when there would be only four members from non-judicial side in the selection committee, we could not resist ourselves and staged a protest,” said another RJD MP, Ramkripal Yadav.
