Union Minister and Leader of the House Piyush Goyal on Thursday said he did not mean to insult the people of Bihar, referring to his remark in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that if RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha had his way, he “would turn the whole country into Bihar”. After the Opposition, including Jha, demanded an apology from Goyal in the House, the Minister said he withdrew the remark but stopped short of apologising. “There was no intention of either insulting Bihar or the people of Bihar. If at all it has hurt anybody, I will immediately withdraw that statement. It was not made with any malice towards anybody at all,” he said. Delhi | RJD-JD(U) MPs protest in front of Gandhi statue in Parliament over a remark made by Leader of House in Rajya Sabha and Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Bihar; the MPs also demand his apology over the same. pic.twitter.com/qSnDWYpOTU — ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2022 The Opposition continued its protests over the issue and demanded a discussion on the India-China border situation. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said none of the notices he received under Rule 267, which pertains to suspending the list of business, had followed the procedures laid down. He added that some of the 12 notices he received for Thursday had “outrageous procedural mistakes”. He asked Goyal and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to meet him in his office at 1pm, to which Kharge replied that the issue should be discussed in the open. With the Opposition continuing to disrupt, Goyal said the government had already placed all the facts pertaining to the situation with China before the House. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman added that late President Pranab Mukherjee, who was then-Minister, had asked then-BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh and current Law Minister Kiren Rijiju to speak to him in his office when he sought to raise questions on the China issue in the House. Congress MPs, however, continued to protest and then staged a walk-out during Zero Hour.
