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BJP, RJD members clash in Lok Sabha

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were thrown into disarray for over 16 minutes when some Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal members clashed on the issue of alleged remarks of Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi against state Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari.

The issue was raised during zero hour by BJP's Rita Verma and her party colleague Prabhunath Singh, who said that the chief minister had made this statement yesterday in a public meeting in Patna.

Verma said this kind of behaviour could not be permitted, especially since the governor was a representative of the President.

In any case, both members said that it was not ethical on the part of a chief minister to make such remarks.

Even as most members in the House shouted ''shame shame,'' RJD member Mohan Singh said that it was also not becoming of the governor to go around the state, making statements against the state government. This led to an angry exchange of words, and nothing could be heard.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana said that though law and order were issues in the realm of the state, the matter was very shameful if media reports were to be believed.

Khurana's subsequent remarks were drowned in the angry exchange that followed, and some members of the RJD marched to the well of the House.

Speaker G M C Balayogi said that the matter was about a state and its governor, and could not be raised in the House. But his pleas appeared to fall on deaf ears and he called upon other members who had issues to raise to speak.

UNI

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