Bihar CM under RSS, BJP influence, says Rahul Gandhi after police roughs up MLAs inside Assembly

File image: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

A day after Opposition leaders were thrashed by the police inside the state assembly, the Congress on March 24 said that democracy has been murdered in Bihar.

The Bihar Assembly witnessed unprecedented turmoil on March 23 and the police was called in to physically evict legislators who had laid siege to the Speakers chamber. Members of the opposition Grand Alliance, comprising RJD, Congress, and the Left, were agitated over the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said those stripping democracy have no right to call themselves a government. He said the opposition will continue to raise issues in the public interest and do not fear anything.

"It is clear from the shameful events in Bihar Assembly that the chief minister is firmly under the influence of BJP and RSS. Those stripping democracy have no right to call themselves a government," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

"The opposition will continue to raise issues in the public interest. We are not afraid," he added.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also urged people to raise their voice against the alleged police high-handedness in Bihar where RJD and Congress MLAs were allegedly assaulted and manhandled by the police.

#WATCH Bihar: Women MLAs of the Opposition being carried out of the Assembly building by women security personnel. They (MLAs) were refusing to allow Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha to step out of his chamber. pic.twitter.com/Skj0LayFs4

— ANI (@ANI) March 23, 2021

He said they were raising their voice against the passage of the Bihar Special Armed Police Bill in the state assembly, that will empower the police to put anyone behind bars.

"Democracy has been murdered in Bihar and if the people of the country will not raise their voice now, there will be no democracy left in the country," he told reporters.

Unprecedented chaos erupted inside after Bihar Special Armed Police Bill, 2021, was tabled in the assembly. The Bill seeks to rename the Bihar Military Police, give it more teeth.

The opposition, however, termed it as "black" legislation, taking strong exception to provisions that empower the Special Armed Police, previously known as the Bihar Military Police, to conduct searches and arrests without

producing a warrant.

Things had come to the pass after the Speaker was thwarted from taking his seat by a handful of women legislators of the RJD who had clambered on to the podium even as many other MLAs created ruckus in the well, threw away the chair of the Vidhan Sabha secretary and prevented staff from bringing in another piece of furniture.

The Bill was passed by the assembly late in the evening, well past the stipulated time, amid a "walkout" by opposition MLAs who squatted outside the building and raised slogans, slighted by the manner in which they were ousted from the hall by the men in uniform.