Patna, Dec. 2: The Legislative Council was adjourned sine die and the winter session came to an end today with former chief minister Rabri Devi leading aggressive RJD MLCs to stall proceedings for the fourth consecutive day.
The RJD legislators remained adamant not to allow the House to function until senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi apologised for "abusing" RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Congress vice-president Sonia Gandhi.
The pandemonium going on since Tuesday again saw RJD legislators rushing to the Well of the Upper House the moment it met, alleging that the BJP had insulted their leader Lalu and demanded an apology from Sushil.
Rabri egged the legislators on by shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the electronic address system inside the Council and asserted her stand of not allowing the House to function without Sushil's apology.
In the meantime, BJP MLC and chief whip in the Council Rajnish Kumar moved an adjournment motion, demanding a discussion on non-payment of old-age pension, widow pension and pension to differently abled people in the state for the past several months. Council chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh rejected it.
Seeing the pandemonium, Awadhesh adjourned the House for an hour till noon.
Outside the Council, Sushil asserted that he "would not tender any apology in this life" and questioned why he should do so when he had not spoken anything wrong about anybody. "What is wrong in calling a corrupt person corrupt? How can a corrupt person be called honest? I called Lalu corrupt instead of calling him a thief. He has been convicted in the fodder scam and the Supreme Court has upheld his conviction. I have not done or said anything wrong," Sushil said.
The Leader of Opposition in the Upper House also took potshots at Nitish for failing to ensure the smooth functioning of the Council.
However, the same scenes recurred when the Council met again in spite of the presence of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was supposed to deliver his customary speech on the last day of the session. JDU and Congress MLCs supported the RJD protest by standing in their designated seats.
BJP MLC and former state president Mangal Pandey was heard requesting Nitish to intervene and rein in the Grand Alliance legislators so that the House could transact business. However, silence prevailed for a couple of minutes when Nitish stood up to speak and those protesting in the Well returned to their seats.
"Altogether 49 calling attention motions were brought but they could not be taken up owing to the disorder in the House. Members had submitted 292 questions of which the chairman approved 281. Their pending answers will be submitted to the House in the next session," Nitish said.
The pandemonium resumed once Nitish's short speech was over. Awadhesh pointed out that the Council had passed seven bills in the current session, thanked the members and adjourned the House sine die.
