Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, on July 12 levelled a serious allegation against Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary — Mr. Sinha alleged Mr. Chaudhary had switched off the microphone and not allowed him to speak during Question Hour.
Mr. Sinha claimed that, on the instruction of leaders sitting on the Treasury Benches, the Speaker kept interrupting opposition leaders and even ordered the microphone to be switched off so that their voices could not be heard in the Assembly or reported in the media.
Mr. Sinha had put up a short notice question on the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge and was seeking the reply from the Minister of Road Construction, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. However, without taking up Mr. Sinha’s question, the Speaker shifted to starred question, upsetting Mr. Sinha.
“The Speaker did not allow debate in the House on my question because the matter was related to corruption. The BJP wants to run the House properly but under the pressure of the ruling party, the opposition is being discriminated against by the Chair. A party with one member is heard but a party with 78 members is stopped. Whenever a question is asked by the BJP, our microphone gets switched off by the Speaker on the instruction of leaders sitting in the Treasury Benches,” Mr. Sinha alleged after the speaker adjourned the house following uproar by the BJP legislators on the issue of land for jobs scam case.
A four-lane bridge over the river Ganga in Bhagalpur is being constructed at the cost of ₹1,716 crore. The bridge connects Sultanganj in Bhagalpur to Aguwani in Khagaria district. The bridge collapsed for the second time while under construction on June 4, 2023.
“The matter is pending before the court. When the collapse of the Aguwani-Sultanganj bridge was first reported on April 22, it was I who raised the question in the House as the Leader of the Opposition. Now in the government, we took proper action in the incident and suspended several engineers responsible for it. Whatever the court will decide, we will obey it,” Mr. Tejashwi Yadav said, when asked about the question raised by Mr. Sinha.
During the half-an-hour of Assembly proceedings on the third day of the monsoon session, BJP legislators created a ruckus in the House after the Speaker did not take up Mr. Sinha’s question. BJP MLAs trooped into the Well of the House, demanding Mr. Yadav’s resignation. On the following day, they lifted chairs over their heads and banged on tables. Following the uproar, the Speaker adjourned the House till July 13.
