NEW DELHI: Amid mounting protests from the members of Opposition parties, including the RJD and the JD(U), Union minister and Leader of the House in Raya Sabha Piyush Goyal had to withdraw his objectionable remark made about Bihar on Thursday. To begin with, the members of almost all Opposition parties, led by RJD and JD-U, walked out from the RS demanding discussion over the Chinese transgression along the LAC in Tawang and apology from Goyal soon after the session initiated.
Protesting against Goyal’s remark on Bihar given on Tuesday in the RS, the Opposition members carrying placards continued protesting near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the premises of Parliament for hours.
Later, seeing the protest getting a political colour against the BJP, Goyal withdrew his remark stating that he had no intention to insult Bihar.
Goyal had remarked to RJD leader Manoj Jha that his party would one day turn the entire “country into Bihar” if they have their way. RJD MP in RS Manoj Kumar Jha had on Wednesday also written a letter to Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar about the minister’s “demeaning” remark, demanding an apology from the BJP leader.
Goyal said that he had withdrawn immediately his statement if it hurt anybody. “At the outset, let me clarify that there is absolutely no intention of insulting either Bihar or the people of Bihar. And if at all it has hurt anybody, I immediately withdraw that statement. It was not made with any malice to anybody at all,” Goyal said.
He had said on Tuesday when Jha was speaking during a discussion on the Appropriation Bill seeking Parliament’s nod for additional spending. Goyal had said that “inka bas chale to desh ko Bihar bana dein’ (If they have their way, they will turn the entire country into Bihar). That statement of Goyal on Bihar had irked not only the members of RJD, JDU but also members of many other Opposition parties like Shivsena Thacakery fraction) and others.
Taking serious note of Goyal’s remark, Jha said that ‘an insult to Bihar is an insult to the entire country’ and threatened to launch an agitation against the minister if he failed to apologise.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also joined the chorus of protest started by Jha in demanding an apology from Goyal.