A day after Opposition MLAs were thrashed inside Bihar Assembly, 11 parties on Wednesday accused the BJP-JD(U) government of attempting to “throttle the voice of the elected representatives” in the state.
“BJP is killing democracy. If this is happening with elected leaders, what about the law and order situation in the state,” Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters. He was flanked by leaders of other Opposition parties.
“We unequivocally condemn this unprecedented attack on India's democracy and urge every Indian to stand by democratic principles,” the Opposition parties said in a joint statement that accused the BJP-JD(U) government for “bringing Police Raj in Bihar”.
Several MLAs, policemen, RJD and Congress leaders along with some media personnel were injured when the police resorted to a baton charge on Tuesday.
Led by RJD’s Tejashvi Yadav, the Opposition leaders were protesting against the tabling of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021 empowers the Bihar Military Police to conduct raids and arrests without warrants.
“This is an unconstitutional Bill that effectively transforms the police force into an armed militia to harass, suppress and crackdown on academics, activists, journalists, the political opposition and all those who dare to speak truth to power. It is an insidious conspiracy to enforce a Police Raj in Bihar and portends what the BJP intends to do throughout India employing the sheer tyranny of power,” the joint statement said.
They condemned the police action on MLAs and said that rather than addressing the legitimate pro-people concerns, the MLAs were ruthlessly beaten and forcefully ejected from the assembly.
“They (BJP & JDU) talked about democracy but passed the Bill. We know they will misuse it. Today ED, CBI, I-T are being misused at the Centre; the same misuse will happen in Bihar and create problems in future,” Kharge said.
(Published 24 March 2021, 09:11 IST)
JOIN US