JD- U, BJP spar in House over deaths

Bihar’s ruling JD( U) and its ally- turned- Opposition party BJP on Monday engaged in an unseemly confrontation in the state Assembly over the mid- day meal tragedy as the BJP legislators, aided by those from the RJD, disrupted proceedings in both Houses of the state legislature.

This being the first Assembly session after the JD( U) snapped its 17- yearold alliance with the BJP and chief minister Nitish Kumar removed 11 ministers from the BJP in June, the saffron party, now the state’s main Opposition party, viciously attacked the JD( U) government mainly over the July 16 death of 23 schoolchildren following consumption of pesticidelaced midday meals and the July 7 serial blasts at the Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi temple that injured two foreign monks.

Matters turned mindlessly political when JD( U) legislator Manjeet Singh made a sensational allegation against the BJP linking both the Bodh Gaya blasts and the midday meal deaths to Gujarat. Citing reports about timers used in the blasts found to have been made in Gujarat, Singh demanded a probe to ascertain if the pesticide mixed in the Saran schoolchildren’s meals was also made in Gujarat. While both the BJP and the RJD blamed the JD( U) government for the twin incidents, the ruling party’s legislators in both the Assembly and the Legislative Council spoke of an Opposition- led “political conspiracy” for them. The ensuing uproar, with the Opposition legislators trooping to the well, led to adjournments and walkouts.

The BJP was incensed when Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary ignored an adjournment motion moved by Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav of the BJP to discuss the midday meal deaths and then granting the same motion moved by the RJD.