Rabri’s remark rubs Oppn the wrong way

Rabri Devi’s statement came after the house gave a go by to question hour as decided by the business advisory committee to discuss last Friday’s incident when Independent Dilip Verma was mercilessly beaten up by ministers and ruling RJD MLAs.

Outraged by her statement, BJP MLAs went on a dharna inside the well of the house, accusing the Chief Minister of having nocompunction at the outrage.

“Several ministers were detained by the police while capturing booths …. In the recent elections. This government is unfit to govern,” he charged.

Earlier, Rabri Devi’s steadfast refusal to tender an apology prompted the speaker, Deo Narayan Yadav, to ask her to condemn the incident. The speaker had to send his secretarial staff quite a few times to where the Chief Minister was sitting to persuade her. She ultimately said, “Hum ghatna par khed prakat karte hain” (I regret what has happened), and left the house immediately afterwards.

Earlier, speaking about the incident, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Upendra Prasad Verma, without mentioning the details, accused the Independent member of having misbehaved with Rabri Devi. “Hamari mukhya mantri maryadit mahila hain” (Our chief minister is a respectable woman) he said, sparking strong protests from opposition benches.

Dilip Verma, denying the charge of misbehaviour said he had approached the ChiefMinister with a dhoti in hand to remind her of the unfulfilled promise of her government to provide dhotis and sarees to the poor at nominal prices when he was attacked by the ministers.

The minister firmly rejected the main opposition BJP’s demand to suspend errant ministers and MLAs from the house even for a day, but said the government had no objection to the constitution of a house committee to probe the incident.