Bihar Assembly stoops low

67 Opposition MLAs suspended, RJD legislator hurls shoes at Speaker

Inside the Assembly, the situation became all the more disgraceful when a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator flung his shoe at the Speaker. The RJD legislators were protesting against the order of the presiding officer who had suspended 64 MLAs for their unruly behaviour. After Wednesday’s incident, three more Opposition MLAs were suspended.

The fracas continued for the second day in a row. As the House assembled on Wednesday to transact its business, the RJD and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) members trooped into the well of the House in their bid to press for an adjournment motion on the alleged irregularities involved in the withdrawal of Rs 11,412 crore from the government treasuries.

This led to a heated exchange of words from the ruling as well as Opposition members. Both  camps were bent upon scoring brownie points. As the slogan-shouting RJD leaders refused to relent and went on a rampage, the Speaker announced the suspension of 64 legislators and asked the marshals to evict them.

The scene took a dramatic turn when Jyoti, who was also marshalled out, went berserk and smashed many flower pots on the premises. Aware of the fact that electronic media was shooting the incident, she even flung the broken pieces on the woman marshals. Later, she also pretended to have become unconscious.

The scene inside was no better when MLC Sanjay Prasad ( RJD) removed a microphone and hurled it triggering angry responses from the treasury benches.

RJD legislator R C Paswan, who was marshalled out of the Assembly, reportedly fainted at the gate of the House. He was taken in an ambulance to  hospital.

Dharna
The suspension of the MLAs came shortly after around 80 Opposition members taking a cue from their opposition counterparts in Karnataka spent the night in the well of the two Houses of the state legislature.

As the watch and ward staff lifted RJD legislator  Bablu Dev, his colleagues rushed to his rescue. In the melee, a slipper was thrown towards the Speaker’s podium.
It was not immediately known who had flung the footwear which, however, did not hit the Speaker.“Bihar’s image has taken a severe beating due to the shameful behaviour of the Congress, RJD and LJP leaders for the last two days,” rued former minister and Janata Dal (United) legislator Nitish Mishra.