He coughed twice but nothing clear over corruption case against CS
VIJAY DEO JHA
RANCHI

Chief Minister Arjun Munda coughed twice to get ‘pitch perfect’ to answer Opposition’s charges, but then, he offered nothing tactile over corruption case against Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Singh, whose removal the Opposition sought vehemently.

As united Opposition continued to demand the removal of Singh it demanded Munda to clear the stand of the government, even on Thursday, the first half of ongoing budget session was clearly Opposition’s show.

Rushing to the Well and designating Congress MLA Sawna Lakra as the Speaker Opposition ran a parallel session inside the House as the session started. Speaker CP Singh took strong exception to this and suspended four Congress MLAs; Chandraekhar Dubey, KN Tripathi, Sawna Lakra and Yogendra Saw and one JVM MLA Pradeep Yadav for rest of the days of the budget session. Amid din and chaos nothing was audible except Speaker hurriedly announcing “the House has been adjourned.”

Exasperated Yadav alleged the Speaker for blatant partisan. “Speaker seems to have fallen in the pocket of the government. He was expected to safeguard Opposition’s democratic right,” he said. As the Opposition continued to rant and raze treasury’s robust lungs, Satyanand Jha Batul, Umashankar Yadav Akela, and Raja Peter, too proved feeble voices whose service the treasury bench badly required.

Sensing probably, the suspension could cement Opposition’s unity against the government the BJP MLA Raghwar Das requested Singh to revoke their suspension.

The Opposition returned to the House in the second half of the session to take part in the debate over the speech of the Governor MOH Farook. But CS’ removal continued to be the signature tune of the Opposition. Thick charges often flew from the Opposition against Munda for protecting CS despite the Bihar Government sought permission from its Jharkhand counterpart to grant permission to prosecute him in one of the vigilance cases against him during the time undivided Bihar.

“If a corrupt official like Singh continues to hold such an important position in the government, fingers have been raised on the intention of the CM too. We want to know it from him,” a joint chorus of the Opposition was loud and clear.

Yadav was leading a precision attack on the government. “Munda had not granted permission to prosecute him in 2005 against Singh when he (Munda) was Chief Minister. Even today he is doing the same,” he said.

The Opposition had come prepared with voluminous documents to substantiate charges against CS as well as the list of his properties. In 2005 when Munda was the Chief Minister he had denied prosecution against Singh.

And when Munda rose to reply he was interrupted by frequent interruptions. “Our stand against corruption is well known. Opposition has raised certain issue,” Munda said.

He did not list his own burden for not granting permission: political, personal or otherwise. He simply placed onus on certain legal issues. “The place of occurrence of the case is undivided Bihar. We need to look into these aspects also. We will take legal opinion,” he said.

He pocked fun at the Opposition for running a histrionic show. “Sometimes anxiety level goes high. I understand.” It rang true for Munda too, he had counted too much upon his sore vertebra against Opposition’s formidable spine.