Sharp ideological differences came to the fore inside the Bihar assembly on Monday when members of the opposition announced boycott of a special screening of The Kashmir Files, a Hindi film on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1990, and tore the free tickets in protest against the alleged attempt by the state government to promote the BJP's agenda.
The tickets were distributed among the members after Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishor Prasad told the House that a complimentary show has been organised for all MLAs, which was greeted with a murmur of protests by members of the CPI(ML), the second-largest constituent of the opposition Grand Alliance.
By the time the zero hour began, the protests grew louder and members of the RJD, which helms the opposition coalition, lent their weight to their junior partner, trooping into the well, shouting slogans and throwing shreds of torn tickets in the air.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha reacted with dismay and annoyance, asked the members to have respect for the glorious viraasat (legacy) of the house, and adjourned proceedings more than 30 minutes ahead of the lunch break scheduled at 1 PM.
Outside the house, members of both sides of the political spectrum freely vented their ire against their opponents.
“This is a clever attempt by the BJP to further its communal agenda. So many movies have been made in the past on all sorts of issues. Never before have we seen such efforts by governments to promote a film,” CPI(ML) legislator Ajeet Kushwaha said.
Fellow party MLA Amarjteet Kushwaha claimed: “The BJP is drunk on its success in UP elections where CM Yogi Adityanath has earned the nickname 'bulldozer baba'. It now wants to run a bulldozer on Bihar's poor people. We will not let that happen. Tomorrow we will also bring an adjournment motion on attempts by Giriraj Singh to stoke communal passions.”
Singh, a Union minister, is a Lok Sabha member from Bihar. He has of late been in news for alleging that Hindus were facing persecution in his parliamentary constituency and blaming it on politics of appeasement, which is being seen as an allusion to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is a socialist.
BJP MLAs also latched on to the opportunity to inveigh against what they have been calling pseudo secularism and asked the opposition to show some empathy towards the displaced Kashmiri Pandits whose brutalisation at the hands of extremists has been shown in the movie in graphic detail.
BJP MLAs Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul and Sanjay Saraogi also alleged that the opposition "always creates a ruckus when we raise the issue of land meant for gaushalas (cowsheds) being captured by the mafia. This issue was raised today for the fourth time during the current session and every time the opposition disrupts the proceedings under some pretext or the other.
Another BJP MLA Pramod Kumar, who is also a senior minister, warned the opposition of a backlash from the common patriotic citizens.
Sandip Saurav, a young CPI(ML) legislator and an alumnus of the JNU, which the movie targets, said, “It is not a mere coincidence that there have been so many incidents of people shouting abusive slogans and even assaults on Muslims after watching the movie.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy CM who is a several-term BJP MLA, made an appeal to reason and urged the opposition legislators not to have any preconceived notions about a well-intentioned movie.
“It is my request to fellow legislators, please have no misgivings about the movie disturbing communal harmony. It has been cleared by the censor board and has been in theatres for many days. If after watching the movie you do not like it, you are free to criticise it,” he told reporters.
