Bihar minister accused of illicit liquor triggers storm in House
The Bihar assembly plunged intoturmoil on Saturday when the opposition sought to raise theissue of alleged involvement of revenue and land reformsminister Ram Surat Rai in illicit liquor trade, forcingadjournment of the House around noon till lunch.
No sooner than the proceedings began at 11 am, leaderof the opposition Tejashwi Yadav rose from his seat and urgedthe Chair that an adjournment motion over Rais allegedinvolvement in the business of liquor in this dry state betaken up for discussion.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha disapproved of the same,saying he has received the notice but the motion shall beconsidered only at “an appropriate time”.
He ruled that the Question Hour should proceed.
A miffed Tejashwi Yadav signalled to the MLAs of hisparty and allies Congress and the Left that it was time toleave the House and they staged a walkout even as healthminister Mangal Pandey began reading out the reply to a shortnotice question by a RJD legislator.
By noon, when the Zero Hour began, the oppositionlegislators were back in the House. The Speaker rejected theadjournment motion moved by RJD MLA Rekha Devi.
She was, however, allowed to read out the motion afterYadav rose and made a request to the effect.
The RJD heir apparent, thereafter, added that he hadsome “evidence” against Rai which he wished to place beforethe House.
Rai has been in the eye of a storm over a four-month-old case. A large number of liquor cartons was seized from aschool building in Muzaffarpur district in November last year,a fortnight before the BJP leader won the Aurai seat andlanded a cabinet berth. The school is named after Raisdeceased father Arjun Rai.
Yadav has been alleging that he suspected theministers involvement in illegal liquor trade, pointing outthat he was named in the schools documents as its founder.
Moreover, one of his brothers, the manager of the school, hasbeen named as an accused in the FIR.
The minister has countered opposition charge sayinghis brother was “one of 13 people named in the FIR, theremaining being associated with the RJD”, while insisting thatcomplicity of those named as an accused was still underinvestigation.
Training his guns at Rai, Yadav, during the assemblysession, also made a mention of the ministers deceasedfather. A strong exception was taken to this by Deputy ChiefMinister Tarkishore Prasad.
The opposition legislators then trooped into the welland raised anti-government slogans, causing the Speaker toadjourn the proceedings around 12.15 pm.
Thereafter, they spent some time outside, squatting infront of the Speakers chamber.
Later, Yadav led a march towards Raj Bhavan, barely akilometre away, saying he would apprise Governor Phagu Chauhanof the attempts to “muzzle the voice of the opposition”.
Earlier, Yadav had held a press conference at hisresidence where he displayed pictures of the inauguration ofthe school in which Rai could be seen.
“How can the minister wash his hands off a matter thatinvolves a property and an institution wherein he is so deeplyinvolved,” Yadav asked, reiterating the demand that he besacked by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
