Nitish blasts Oppn after Tejashwi’s attack

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit out at the RJD-led Opposition for its criticism of the government and recounted his achievements during the last 16 years of his rule while giving the government’s reply in the Legislative Assembly after the debate on the Governor’s address to the joint sitting of the two Houses on the opening day of the Budget session last week

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit out at the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Opposition for its criticism of the government and recounted his achievements during the last 16 years of his rule while giving the government’s reply in the Legislative Assembly after the debate on the Governor’s address to the joint sitting of the two Houses on the opening day of the Budget session last week.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on his way to the assembly on Wednesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Opening the debate,Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav called the government a “coalition of contrasts” and the Governor’s address a repeat of previous year’s speeches far removed from the ground realities.

Amid the Opposition walkout midway through his reply, Kumar said “facts speak for themselves”. “For more than two years, the entire world has been grappling with Covid-19 pandemic, which fortunately is now showing signs of ebbing. The state had to be on its toes and the result is that the state has vaccinated over 12 crore people. The state is still continuing with tests despite the fact that the number of active cases has now dropped to 267. Bihar carried more tests than the national average per 10 lakh population. Bihar was also quick to distribute ₹498.47-crore relief among the kin of Covid victims and is providing ₹1,500 per month to the every child orphaned due to pandemic,” he said.

Kumar said the law and order situation in Bihar had improved remarkably. “As per the 2020 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, Bihar was ranked 23rd in the country in terms of cognisable offences. A comparison with 2005 figures can give the Opposition the answer, as despite big increase in the state’s population, the numbers have fallen significantly. The Opposition should feel proud about their state that it has recorded less than half the national average in crime against women. While the national average is 56.5, it is just 26.3 in the state,” he said.

Listing his government’s other achievements, the chief minister said, “Bihar has done record procurement of wheat and paddy and we are going to further increase the target. Bihar has improved on the front of both agriculture production and procurement. In crime, it has been found 60% of the murders are due to land dispute and therefore land survey work has been initiated,” he said.

Earlier, the leader of opposition said that the speech prepared by the officials for the Governor’s address did not have substance and the progress it talked about had not reached the masses, which continued to grapple with growing unemployment, farmers’ miseries, rising crime, fertiliser crisis and price rise. Even the NIti Ayog report has nailed Bihar’s claims, Yadav said.

Sparks fly on BJP MLA’s remark

The House was adjourned for sometime after the opposition and treasury benches engaged in verbal duel over Tejashwi Yadav’s reference to RSS, arrest of LK Advani in Bihar and a BJP MLA’s statement that the “voting rights of the Muslims be snatched”.

“What will happen to Bihar chief secretary Amir Subhani and Industry minister Shahnawaz Hussain? Will they not vote? Did the CM not say earlier that RSS was dangerous?” he asked, referring to the contribution of tall Muslim leaders in the country’s freedom struggle and the “absence of RSS”.

On this, Hussain intervened and said the right to citizenship was given through the Constitution and there was no provision of taking it away. “If any MLA made any statement out of the House, it should not be brought in the House debating Governor’s address,” he said.

Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad and agriculture minister Amarendra Pratap Singh also stood up, saying RSS was an organisation they were proud to be part of and the remarks made against it were “unfortunate” and could not be tolerated. As the verbal duel seemed to turn ugly, Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha adjourned the House.