Unprecedented in assembly: 2 mins engage in war of words

Ranchi: Two ministers of the Hemant Soren cabinet — Sudivya Kumar Sonu of JMM and Irfan Ansari of Congress — engaged themselves in a verbal duel on the floor of the house during question hour of the ongoing budget session here on Friday.
Notably, clashes among ruling MLAs and ministers have become quite common in the assembly this session when the former do not get satisfactory responses from the ministers concerned, but a clash between ministers was unprecedented. Earlier, Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav had an argument with drinking water and sanitation minister Yogendra Yadav, a JMM representative, in the house. The incident started when the JMM minister interjected to criticize his Congress colleague Ansari, who was unable to satisfy Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav. The MLA had sought a reply over the non-functional nursing college in Godda.
Sonu, who is the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, said Ansari should objectively reply to the questions instead of using sarcasm against any member who has raised a pertinent question. "The minister should uphold the dignity of the house," he said. Reacting sharply to his comments, Ansari said the minister (Sonu) "thinks that he is very knowledgeable". "It was a matter between me and Pradeep Yadav but since you seem to be a know-it-all, so you start jumping," he said, triggering a war of words.
In a bid to support Sonu, Yadav reminded the house that it was the responsibility of the parliamentary affairs minister to ensure that the treasury bench followed business rules and order in the house. "He has simply discharged his duty and the health minister should not take an exception to his intervention," Yadav said.
Earlier, Yadav asked the health minister if the govt had any plans to start a nursing college in Godda and if there was a college already in place, when was it constructed? Instead of providing an answer, Ansari said, "You had been a five-term MLA from Godda. You should have established the nursing college and you should know better when it was constructed."
A similar uncomfortable situation also emerged on Wednesday when BJP's Panki MLA Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta entered into an argument with Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto during zero hour. It was because of some misunderstanding that the speaker called the name of the next member to read out zero-hour notice before Mehta could finish his. The MLA took an exception and accused Mahto of being partial. He also refused to read out the notice further when the speaker requested him to complete it.