Assembly sees rare spat between Speaker, minister

The state assembly on Wednesday witnessed some unsavoury moments when panchayati raj minister Samrat Choudhary had a run-in with Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House in a huff and only returning in the post-lunch session when the minister tendered his apology over the spat

The state assembly on Wednesday witnessed some unsavoury moments when panchayati raj minister Samrat Choudhary had a run-in with Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House in a huff and only returning in the post-lunch session when the minister tendered his apology over the spat.

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The tiff started when Choudhary was replying to a question. The Speaker told him that online reply to the question had not come to his office. The minister countered it, saying it had been sent to which the Speaker replied, “Only 11 replies had come”.

At this point, the minister remarked that “one should not get so restless (etna vyakul hone se kaam nahin chalega)”.

The comment by the minister apparently did not go well with the Speaker who asked the minister to withdraw his words, but Choudhary refused to relent, waiving a finger at the Chair. “You cannot run the House in this fashion,” the minister retorted. This apparently angered the Speaker who adjourned the House till 12 noon in the pre-lunch session. After the house reassembled, JD(U) MLA Narendra Narayan Yadav was on the chair and he adjourned the House till post lunch session.

Later, when the House sat after lunch, parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary told the chair that the minister would like express regret for his “uncalled for comments” at the Chair. “I apologise if my comments have hurt anybody,” the minister said.

Later, the House resumed. The Opposition members, however, called the minister’s conduct unbecoming and sought his dismissal.