Lalu Prasad takes ill, admitted to cardiology wing of RIMS in Ranchi
demanding an inquiry and action against the culprits.
The defacement of Nehru’s statue was the latest in a series of similar attacks on a number of that began with the demolition of communist leader Vladimir Lenin’s statute in Tripura following the BJP’s victory in the assembly elections.
On March 7, to protest the demolition of Lenin’s statue, a group of ultra-Left students vandalised a bust of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee in south Kolkata.
AMBEDKAR STATUE DEFACED IN PATNA
Unidentified miscreants smeared ink on a statute of BR Ambedkar, Dalit activist and the architect of India’s constitution in Bihar’s Begusarai district.
“Unidentified people smeared ink on the face of the statue. Block development officer (BDO), Manoj Paswan, who was the first to notice the defacement, informed police and lodged an FIR,” said Begusarai SP Aditya Kumar Left parties took out a protest march demanding arrest of the culprits. RANCHI: Imprisoned Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad was admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi on Saturday after he complained of discomfort at Birsa Munda Jail.
The former Bihar chief minister has had a history of cardiac ailments. He was admitted to the cardiology wing of the hospital around 5pm on Saturday, but a jail official, who didn’t wish to be named, said his current illness was not related to the heart.
In August 2014, he underwent two major heart surgeries — one to replace an aortic valve and the other to repair the aorta, at Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai. He has since been under medication.
Jail superintendent Ashok Choudhary refused comments on the 69-year-old leader’s health, saying “we have sent him to RIMS … the rest is up to the doctors”.
Prasad has been serving jail term in Ranchi since December 23 last year following his conviction in a fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89 lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994. A month later, he was convicted in another fodder scam case and sentenced to five years in jail.
His son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav flew from Patna to Ranchi after learning about his father’s health. Tej Pratap, senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jharkhand RJD chief Annapurna Devi and hundreds of party workers visited RIMS amid strict security.
Prasad was taken to the hospital through a rear entrance with the reporters waiting at the main door. The hospital has yet to release any official communication on his health. The Congress, with the help of other Opposition parties, decided to bring a no-confidence motion against the Atal Bihari Vajpayeeled government in August 2003, following the re-induction of defence minister George Fernandes in the Union Cabinet. While the numbers were heavily stacked in Vajpayee’s favour, the Opposition leaders saw in a motion an opportunity to raise several charges against the National Democratic Alliance government. The Vajpayee government, which went on to become the first non-Congress regime to complete its full term, comfortably defeated the Opposition in the vote that followed the no-confidence motion.
The NDA secured 312 votes while the Opposition mopped up 186 votes. J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK (Tamil Nadu) and Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference (Jammu and Kashmir) abstained from voting, while the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati voted in favour of the government.
In 2018, the no-confidence motion moved by YRSCP against the Narendra Modiled government could not be taken due to disruptions. But during the Vajpayee regime, the House managed to take up the motion. The then leader of the Opposition, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, initiated the debate. She spoke in Hindi and charged the Vajpayee government for faltering on several fronts. Senior leaders like George Fernandes, LK Advani, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, Mani Shankar Aiyar and others participated in the debate. Even as many Opposition leaders attacked Fernandes, Vajpayee defended him and went on to call describe the best defence minister India ever had.
Gandhi also accused the Vajpayee government of undermining India’s nonaligned position in world affairs, a charge denied by Vajpayee. The debate went on till late at night and Vajpayee stood up to reply only at 11pm. In his famous reply, he taunted Gandhi and said as if the Congress president has overused a thesaurus to pick words. “Come to the maidaan (field) for an electoral bout,” Vajpayee told Gandhi. The challenge to the Congress was for the assembly elections in four states — Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — that was due later in 2003, and the general elections the following year.
While the Congress would go on to win Delhi elections, the BJP’s victory in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan would propel it to advance the general elections by a few months — and pave way for the NDA’s loss.
The 2004 victory would become the first by the United Progressive Alliance, led by the Congress.
The UPA would form the government again in 2009 — but not before the Manmohan Singh-led regime would face its first no-confidence motion in July 2008, after the CPI(M)-led Left Front withdrew support over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Although the UPA scraped through (by a margin of UPA’s 275 votes to the Opposition’s 256), and also returned to power for another fiveyear term the following year, it would eventually lose power to the second NDA government — this time led by the BJP’s Narendra Modi.
It may be seen as a sheer coincidence that Modi, too, now faces a no-confidence motion in the fourth year of his government. The Opposition, unable to take up the motion since the House was not in order, is likely to push for a confidence vote on Monday.