In veiled barb against CM Nitish Kumar, RJD legislators bring caged rat to Bihar assembly

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs brought a caged rat on Friday at the Bihar Legislative Council to protest against the state government's alleged corruption in various incidents.

Speaking to the media, Former chief minister and RJD leader Rabri Devi said, "This government blames rats if important files, medicines or liquor goes missing, so we have caught the rat & brought it to Assembly for punishment."

This seems to be a veiled barb at the current government in Bihar which has blamed rats for earlier incidents of alleged corruption.

The Bihar police had earlier blamed rats for consuming seized liquor kept in police storerooms in Patna in 2017. In the same year, the Bihar’s water resources minister blamed rats for the massive flooding in north Bihar, stating that the rodents caused damage to the river embankments. Moreover last month, the state health department held the rodents responsible for nibbling hundreds of saline bottles stored in the government hospitals at Katihar which was meant to be distributed to various primary healthcare centres across Katihar district.

Lawmakers from the Congress joined the RJD in this bizarre protest against the current government in the state.

“The Bihar government is blaming rats for every incident of corruption. We urge the state government to initiate action against them. For how long will they blame rodents?” news website Down to Earth quoted Rabri Devi as saying.