There was high drama at the inaugural session of the 6th conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, India Region here today as RJD legislators walked out in protest against a comment of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, taking an oblique dig at Lalu Prasad.
The opposition party leaders took exception to the senior BJP leader's remark about "four former chief ministers" in the country serving time in jail in corruption cases.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad, a former Bihar chief minister, is currently lodged in a Ranchi jail in two fodder scam cases.
Speaking at another function later in the day, Sushil Modi said the outrage expressed by the RJD leaders proved the old adage -- "chor ki dadhi mein tinka" (a guilty conscience pricks the mind).
The RJD members had walked out of the Samrat Ashok Convention Centre, where the inaugural session of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, India Region was held in the presence of dignitaries, including Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
They alleged that the deputy chief minister was using the event, which was attended by delegates from across the country as well as abroad, as a "political platform".
Mahajan as well as state Legislative Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary tried to pacify the agitating RJD leaders, reminding them that it was not the Assembly floor, but the ruckus did not stop.
As the programme continued, the RJD leaders staged a demonstration outside the convention centre. They also burnt effigies of Kumar and Sushil Modi at the Income Tax roundabout, a few kilometres away.
Subsequently, at a hurriedly convened press conference, state RJD chief Ramchandra Purve and general secretary Alok Mehta said the members of the party would not take part in the two-day event until the deputy chief minister tendered an apology.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Tejashwi Yadav also criticised the BJP leader's speech, terming it "illogical and abusive".
Yadav was scheduled to address the inaugural session of the event, but left for Bhojpur district to meet the family members of Mujahid Khan, a CRPF jawan who was killed in an encounter with militants in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week.
Later, addressing a function organised on the occasion of former chief minister and OBC stalwart Karpoori Thakur's birth anniversary, Sushil Modi accused the RJD of "tarnishing the image of Bihar on an international platform by creating a ruckus in support of a convict".
"The RJD has proved the old adage -- chor ki dadhi mein tinka. The leader of the party is in jail, not because he launched a Satyagraha but because he was awarded punishment by a court of law in three corruption cases," he said.
Prasad has been convicted in three fodder scam cases. He has obtained bail in the first one.
The deputy chief minister also launched a frontal attack on Tejashwi Yadav, saying, "Karpoori Thakur died without a pucca house or a bank balance, but those invoking his name own more than 30 benami properties at a young age of 28."
Yadav was named in cases relating to benami land transactions last year while he was the deputy chief minister. This had led to Nitish Kumar severing ties with the RJD-Congress combine and forming a new government in the state with the BJP.
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