Home India Politics Opposition boycotts Bihar assembly over law and order

Opposition boycotts Bihar assembly over law and order

By IANS

Patna : The entire opposition in the Bihar assembly boycotted the proceedings Friday to protest the alleged failure of the state government to control law and order.

It also demanded action against those politicians who were found linked with the banned Ranbir Sena, a private militia of landlords.

Legislators led by leader of opposition Rabri Devi boycotted the proceedings to protest the “poor law and order situation in the state”. None of them attended the session despite requests made by speaker Udai Narayan Choudhry and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

A week-long monsoon session of the state assembly began Thursday on a stormy note with the opposition as well as the ruling legislators planning to corner the government on various issues.

The opposition leaders with placards in their hands Friday shouted slogans against the twenty-month-old Nitish Kumar led government.

Rabri Devi expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation and demanded the state government take action against those politicians who were found linked with the Ranbir Sena as per a Patna High Court order.

The court order has created a political storm in the state as several members of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi were named in a report by an investigation commission headed by Justice Amir Das.

The order came early this month during the hearing of a public suit by Ramji Prasad, which demanded making public the findings of the commission. It was a major setback for the government that had wound up the commission early last year.

The court took serious note of the commission’s report naming 37 politicians as supporters of the Ranbir Sena. The commission was set up in 1997 after 59 Dalits were killed at Laxmanpur-Bathe in Jehanabad district in one of the worst caste massacres in the state.