RJD, allies call for Bihar bandh today

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Left parties have called for Bihar Bandh (shutdown) on March 26 against alleged assault on legislators during protests against the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, inside the state Assembly on Tuesday

The Rashtriya Janata Dal and Left parties have called for Bihar Bandh (shutdown) on March 26 against alleged assault on legislators during protests against the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, inside the state Assembly on Tuesday.

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Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday said the shutdown had been called against the autocratic attitude of chief minister Nitish Kumar and the way police were allowed entry into the Assembly to evict legislators protesting against the Bill.

“The state police have become Janata Dal (United) police. The police were deployed inside Assembly to get a Bill passed which would give them unbridled powers,” he said at a press conference.

Yadav also hit out at the CM for trying to justify the police action inside the Assembly by reasoning that police were called because of the chaos created by Opposition members.

“Doesn’t the Opposition have the right to protest inside the House over a bill or any issue. That does not mean police would be called to evict MLAs and drag out even women legislators. I have footage of how the police and others behaved on that day inside the Assembly,. All democratic values and ethics were thrown to the wind,” said Yadav.

Highlighting precedents of laying siege to the Speaker’s chamber, Yadav said, “In 1974, socialists had occupied speaker’s chair and conducted the proceedings during Congress regime but police force was not called inside the Assembly.

“Not only this, Karpoori Thakur as CM had referred a bill to select committee after stiff protest from opposition in 1978,” Tejashwi said.

In 1986, when Nitish Kumar was himself a member of the House, Karpoori Thakur had sat on dharna for three consecutive days in the Assembly, the 31-year-old son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said.