Patna: On Wednesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lost his cool when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs tried to corner his government over the Chhapra hooch deaths inside the Bihar assembly.
“Tum log ko kya hogaya? Tum log bhi sath thhe. Ab tum log bhi sharabi ho gaye. Nahi bardast karnge. Bahar nikalo inko (What has happened? You people were also there [when anti-liquor laws were enforced in 2016]. You all have become alcoholics. I will not tolerate this. Throw them out),” Nitish shouted at the BJP MLAs who trouped inside the well of the House.
Leader of Opposition, Vijay Kumar Sinha, demanded an apology from Nitish for using offensive language inside the House. When the CM refused to concede, the BJP boycotted the proceedings and later demonstrated outside the Assembly against the “nexus” of the police and illicit liquor traders for the hooch deaths.
Incidentally, Sinha himself had faced the CM’s wrath in March for “interfering” with the probe in the Lakhisarai case wherein two persons were jailed for violating Covid protocol.
The CM had accused Sinha, then Bihar assembly speaker, of “violating the Constitution”. Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) and the BJP were back then sharing power in the state.
In the present case, the JD(U) chief’s outburst left even members of his ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), stunned. “It was an unfortunate event. It’s the role of the opposition to raise a matter of public concern,” RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh told ThePrint.
Opposition MLA Arun Kumar was less charitable in his observation. “The language used by CM Nitish Kumar is a result of his frustration about losing the electoral battle and also having to play second fiddle to Tejashwi Yadav,” the BJP legislator told ThePrint.
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Outbursts not new
This is not the first time that Nitish was caught not in the best of his moods while tackling his rivals both inside and outside the assembly.
On 27 November, 2020, the Bihar chief minister was furious when then leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav attacked him for the second day in a row in the assembly.
“Yeh khali jhooth bolta rahta hai (He only speaks lies),” Nitish shouted in the assembly. “I keep listening because he (Tejashwi) is the son of a friend who’s like a brother to me. I don’t say anything. Who made his father the leader of the legislative party? Who made him Deputy CM?”
In March, Nitish attacked RJD MLC Sunil Singh, the chairman of a cooperative body, when he contested the government’s response on procurement of foodgrains from farmers. “I know about you and your deeds. I will expose it,” the CM said.
Later, RJD MLA Mukesh Roshan had entered the assembly with a stethoscope in hand, saying that he wanted to check up on the CM as he was worried about his “blood pressure”.
Two years ago, while campaigning for Chandrika Rai at a rally, Nitish stopped his speech midway when he heard slogans of ‘Lalu Zindabad’. “Kya bol rahe ho, kya bol rahe ho, kya bol rahe ho (What are you saying, what are you saying, what are you saying),” Nitish thundered.
The spate of flare-ups over the recent years is a departure from the image of Nitish — a politician who stuck to decent language and, more importantly, who never lost his temper in public. In 2006, then Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee described Nitish as a role model for MLAs on how to conduct themselves inside the House.
“But that was 2005 when Nitish was the senior ally in the NDA. Even in 2010, he joined hands with the BJP despite having 115 MLAs against 91 of BJP. The insecurity began in 2015 when the JD(U) won just 71 and the RJD emerged as the senior partner (in the Grand Alliance) with 80 MLAs. In 2020, his party came third with just 43 MLAs while BJP got 75. Even today, his party has 45 MLAs against RJD’s 79,” former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi told ThePrint.
Once a close friend of Nitish, Sushil Modi had remarked that it was very difficult to read the CM’s mind.
“Nitishji is not the same man he was in 2005. He is seeing his end coming near. I am not surprised he announced Tejashwi Yadav as his successor. During the last one year, he has lost his temper publicly several times. It did not happen earlier,” the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said, demanding an apology from Nitish for using indecent language inside the assembly.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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