‘Never seen such scenes in my 32 yrs career’: BJP’s Sushil Modi slams opposition over Bihar Assembly ruckus

The Bihar assembly on Tuesday saw unprecedented chaos as leaders of the Grand Alliance-- the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left -- agitated against the passage of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, due to which the session was adjourned five times

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday hit out at the opposition parties over Tuesday’s ruckus in the state assembly. Modi said that he had never witnessed such scenes of ‘hooliganism, sabotage and scuffle’ in the 32 years of his career as a parliamentarian, according to news agency ANI. “If tomorrow they (opposition) get another chance, they will do the same for the entire state of Bihar,” the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP added.

“If tomorrow they (opposition) get another chance, they will do the same for the entire state of Bihar,” Sushil Modi added. (Vipin Kumar/HT file photo)

The Bihar assembly on Tuesday saw unprecedented chaos as leaders of the Grand Alliance-- the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left -- agitated against the passage of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, due to which the session was adjourned five times. The bill has been introduced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led government to provide more powers to the police due to the complex security needs in the state. The current government in Bihar is under the realm of the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) with Nitish Kumar as chief minister.

As the bill was passed, some of the opposition leaders staged a walkout. Those who were inside started raising slogans and prevented speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha from leaving his chamber. Another group of opposition leaders were seen throwing away the chair of the Vidhan Sabha secretary and also prevented staff members to bring in another chair. Cabinet minister Ashok Choudhary was seen getting physical with an RJD MLA who was trying to snatch away documents from BJP leader Prem Kumar, PTI reported.

Police personnel in huge numbers were deployed in the Assembly. Wearing riot gear, they were seen evicting as many leaders as possible. A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against several leaders of the RJD including Tejashwi Yadav and brother Tej Pratap Yadav over the incident.

Opposition parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress and the Shiv Sena among many others condemned the attack on the legislators and criticised the police bill. Issuing a joint statement, they said the bill is unconstitutional “that effectively transforms the police into an armed militia to harass, suppress and crack down on academics, activists, journalists... and the political opposition and all those who dare to speak truth to power.”