Nitish Kumar loses cool again, this time over mobile phones

NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday lost his cool again in the state assembly after he saw an opposition legislator using mobile phones while the House was in session.
Nitish rose up to register his objection and requested the speaker, Nand Kishore Yadav, to ban mobile phones in the assembly.
"These people are talking on mobile now. Earlier, it was banned. Now, everyone is talking with a mobile. Is this any good? You should say that no one should come with a mobile, impose a ban," Nitish said.
"That has already been done earlier. Why is this happening? It started 5-6 years ago, and the use of mobile phones will end the Earth within 10 years," he added.
The chief minister, amid uproar over his remarks from the opposition, further proclaimed that whoever brings a phone in the assembly will be thrown out.
"Aside from that, you say separately. It is restricted. Whoever brings a mobile will be removed from here."
An engineering graduate, Nitish confessed to having been an avid smartphone user himself, but said, "I have given it up. You too should do the same."
Nitish's comments came during the question hour when RJD's Suday Yadav took out his phone to look for facts and figures in support of his submission.
Chief minister's former deputy Tejashwi Yadav shot back at Nitish and termed him anti-technology as well as anti-youth.

"From an environmental point of view, arrangements have been made to answer questions online in order to make the House paperless. If an honourable member has to ask a supplementary question, he will have to ask it by looking at his mobile or tab, but the computer-illiterate Chief Minister of Bihar has a problem with that too," Tejashwi said in a post on X.
"It is unfortunate that Bihar has got such a conservative and outdated Chief Minister who is anti-technology as well as anti-youth, students and women. Condemnable!" he added.
Earlier in the day, Nitish had lashed out at former chief minister Rabri Devi in the legislative council and accused her government of inciting violence between different communities.
"Has her government or her husband's government ever done anything till today? Have they ever done any work till today? There was so much constant fighting," Nitish said.
This is not the first time JD(U) supremo lost his cool in the assembly. Recently, Bihar assembly witnessed a fiery showdown between the CM and Tejashwi Yadav after JD(U) Nitish claimed that he "made RJD supremo Lalu Yadav what he became" and invoked the past records of the Rashtriya Janata Dal tenure from 1994 to 2005.