Democracy on the mat, MLA bashed up inside Assembly

PATNA, March 20: In a blow to the norms of parliamentary democracy, an MLA here was beaten up by ruling party members inside the Assembly. T...

PATNA, March 20: In a blow to the norms of parliamentary democracy, an MLA here was beaten up by ruling party members inside the Assembly. The lone Champaran Vikas Party member, Dilip Verma, eventually had to hide behind the Opposition benches to escape his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) assaulters, who included ministers. Appeals of senior Opposition members for caution and for maintaining the decorum of the House went unheard.

The incident happened soon after Governor A R Kidwai finished his speech to the House. As Speaker Dev Narayan Yadav stepped out to see him off, Verma — who had come dressed in black to protest against the “slow pace” of developmental works in his district – walked up to Chief Minister Rabri Devi with a sari in hand. He told her: “Your Government has failed to keep its commitment to provide saris and dhotis to the poor. However, on my part, I present this sari to you.”

That was enough to enrage treasury benches. At least six ministers – Vikram Kuer, Shiv Shankar Yadav, RameshYadav, Ram Vichar Rai, Illias Hussain and Raj Kumar – pounced on Verma and started beating him up. They were joined by around half-a-dozen legislators, including Rajendra Yadav, Dilip Yadav, Ram Bahadur Rai and Sunil Pushpam. The MLAs continued to thrash him till he ran and hid behind the Opposition benches.

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Interestingly, on his return to the House, the Speaker refused to listen to the complaints of the Opposition members and instead told them to keep quiet. Even attempts by leader of Opposition Sushil Mody, to speak were cut short.

The agitated Opposition MLAs, barring those belonging to the CPI(M) and CPI(M-L), then went on a dharna in the well of the House. As they raised slogans, the Speaker announced adjournment of the House for the day.

However, the protesting legislators refused to leave the House, demanding that the ministers who took part in the assault be sacked and the legislators barred from attending the current Assembly session.

Eventually, the Speaker returned to the House despite theadjournment, and though he did not occupy the chair, appealed to the members to give up their dharna. He even apologised.