Ranchi: Chief minister Raghubar Das's outbursts, including the apparent use of an expletive, during discussions on the last day of the winter session of the Assembly on Friday, sparked a furore with the Speaker throwing up his hands in anger and the Opposition demanding the unparliamentary utterance be expunged from the records.
"... tum logon ko mircha lag raha hai ... lo chunauti lo sadan mein. Brahmanvad nahin chalega. Sharm karo tum logon ko jhanda dhone wala nahin mil raha hai [(Expletive) why are you all so upset. Accept the challenge in the House. This Brahmanical dominance will not do. Shame on you... you are not even getting people willing to carry your party flags]," Das said after having apparently lost his composure in the face of a series of barbs from the Opposition, particularly, JMM MLAs, who criticised the government for denying jobs to tribals and original settlers because of its faulty local residents' policy and alleged that the government had squandered lakhs on holding a global investors' summit.
The chief minister went on to allege that the JMM had been duping poor tribals and original settlers in the name of Jharkhand whereas his government had created 32,147 jobs in recent months and that 95 per cent of the new recruits were local residents.
This angered JMM members who got up from their seats raising slogans. Speaker Dinesh Oraon, who appealed to everyone to maintain peace, was also upset that no one paid heed to his pleadings.
JVM legislature party leader Pradip Yadav interjected saying, "The way the leader of the House and the leader of the Opposition are chirping like birds is not good. Show me the video recordings. I will quit politics if I am wrong," he said.
Speaker Oraon also lost his cool. "The chief minister, the leader of the Opposition and others are saying whatever they want. But, I have to run the House. The chair is not helpless," he said, even as the chief minister insisted he had done nothing wrong.
Later, when Rajmahal MLA Anant Ohja demanded a special CRPF camp at Udhwa to stop infiltrators from Bangladesh, the chief minister responded by saying that it was a matter of national security and went on talk about House decorum.
We haven't said anything wrong. The ruling party always listens to the Opposition patiently. The government is also aware of its rights and powers," Das remarked.
Amid the heated exchanges, the House was adjourned till 2pm. When the House reassembled again, it was business as usual with MLAs tabling their private bills. But, Hemant demanded that the chief minister's "unparliamentary utterances" be expunged from the proceedings.
Speaker Oroan said he would look into it, but the JMM wasn't satisfied. Its MLAs staged a walk out and later burnt an effigy of the chief minister within the Assembly premises.
Through three separate adjournment motions, the Opposition also demanded immediate discussions on how Prajnan Foundation was setting up a university in Jharkhand when its degrees weren't recognised by UGC, why no action had been taken against Special Branch ADG Anurang Gupta and chief minister's then political adviser Ajay Kumar despite the poll panel's directives in connection with the 2016 Rajya Sabha polls.
" Huzur hathi to dhan pehle hi kha gaya, ab humara zameen bhi khane laga hai (Sir, the elephant, which ate our grains before, is now eating our land too)," said leader of the Opposition and JMM leader Hemant Soren, referring to the Momentum Jharkhand logo of a flying elephant.
