Let lovers live happily ever after

The BJP MLA, Vinay Singh, demanded action against lovebirds making public display of affection at Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park. But chief minister Nitish Kumar turned down his plea, saying: “There can be no ban on love.” ingh, the giant killer of the last elections, defeated former chief minister Rabri Devi by a convincing margin. “But then he is also a relative of former MP Prabhunath Singh, who joined the RJD just before the elections and ridiculed Nitish’s cycle distribution scheme among schoolgirls. Prabhunath had said girls sell off their cycles and elope with their boyfriends. He virtually dubbed the scheme as immoral. “Vinay has traits of his relative,” said a senior JD (U) leader.

 

Demand for microphones

Land revenue minister Ramai Ram is known for his obscure speeches in the House. He stammers and scuttles while replying to questions. After Ram replied to a query in the House, Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui told the speaker he and other MLAs could not understand a word Ram said. He also said the speaker might have understood what Ram said because he had a microphone. Ram, who had a long inning in the Lalu-Rabri ministry, replied: “When I was with you (RJD), you could understand every word I said. Now that I am on the opposite side you pretend not to understand a word.” Siddiqui, however, was not alone to complain against Ram’s style of delivering speeches. An MLA actually went to the speaker and requested him to follow the Lok Sabha pattern and make microphones available to every MLA.

Troublemakers in Assembly

The newcomers in the House have become a cause of concern for seasoned legislators. An NDA legislator was sternly told to apologise when he walked to the treasury bench to meet a minister when another was answering to a question. The first-term MLA apologised as ordered by the speaker but was clueless to as to why he had to. The chair explained him that he had come between the speaker and the minister while the proceedings were on.

They just met

The cold war between the Governor, Devanand Konwar, and the state government is pitched so high that when chief minister Nitish Kumar went to the Raj Bhavan last Wednesday rumours started doing the rounds on Nitish’s “hard talks” with Konwar over the alleged bill delay and appointment of vice-chancellors. “The issue of the universities never propped up during the one-hour meet and it was the usual exchange of pleasantries. The governor was talking about how great it would be when Nalanda International University started and the chief minister requested the governor to inaugurate the Bihar Divas function scheduled for March 22. The governor accepted the request,” said a person present in the meeting. Perhaps, Nitish would like the human resource development minister P.K. Shahi to do the hard talk with Konwar.speaker and the minister while the proceedings were on.