Don’t mess with Nitish Kumar unless you want to be at the receiving end of a long lecture on the Assembly decorum and etiquette. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Subodh Rai experienced it first hand on Monday when the Chief Minister told him to shut up and sit down until it was proper for him to speak.
Bihar Assembly that is not exactly a paragon of dignity and propriety as the history shows, faced this unruly scene on Monday when RJD MLC Mohammed Faroukh raised a question on poor road condition in Bihar.
Rural Development Minister Jayant Raj stood up and attempted to answer the question. Unsatisfied by his answer, Faroukh asked a follow-up question but before Raj could provide and answer, Rai stood up and fired another question of his own.
This angered the Chief Minister who told Rai to sit down, shut up, and wait for his turn.
“Let one person finish asking a question before you ask another question,” Kumar blurted only to be interrupted by Rai again who accused him and other ruling party leaders of throwing the Council rules out of the window but never missing a chance to lecture the opposition.
Losing his patience at Rai’s audacity, Kumar told him to shut up and go back to his seat.
“Go back to your seat and try to learn the rules of the Legislative Council. When I am telling you to sit down, you should sit down,” he said while asking the Chairperson of the Bihar Legislative Council to make Rai aware of the rules and etiquettes of the Council.
As expected, a pandemonium broke out as both ruling and opposition party leaders created ruckus in the house and accused others of high-handedness and violating the rules of the Assembly.
Talking to reporters outside the Assembly, Rai said that Nitish Kumar had turned senile and his age was showing up in everything he said.
“He used to be able to take 3-4 supplementary questions at a time in the past but now he is always angry and is always lecturing others who he thinks committed the cardinal sin of crossing him. We have noticed a pattern here that whenever an RJD leader asks a question, Nitish Kumar gets angry,” he said.
Former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shrawan Kumar rubbished Rai’s claim saying rules were meant for everyone but one should ask a question only after the first question has been answered to the satisfaction of the person asking the question.
