There was high drama in Patna late last night when a masked youth broke into the bungalow of Bihar’s Building Construction minister, Monazir Hasan, armed with a toy pistol.Later on, the 22-year-old youth, who has been arrested, said he had come to tell the minister that the poor should not be ignored.According to the police, the youth, identified as Balbir, scaled the wall of the minister’s bungalow at around 1.30 am. When challenged by a sentry, he brandished what later turned out to be a toy pistol and demanded that he be taken to the minister’s bedroom as he had an urgent message to convey. The sentry, however, responded by firing a couple of shots; he then overpowered the intruder and discovered that his weapon was only a toy gun.At the time, the minister had reportedly retired to sleep. Most of his security guards had also returned to their barracks.Today, however, the minister did not fail to use the issue for political advantage. ‘‘This appears to be a conspiracy of my political rivals who want to eliminate me,’’ he alleged. ‘‘Otherwise how could the youth have dared to enter my house?’’ Monazir Hassan, also a minister in the Rabri Devi government, quit the RJD to join the JD(U) before the last general election.The youth has denied that he had any intention of assassinating the minister. ‘‘If I had any plan to kill the minister, I would not have come with a toy pistol,’’ he said.
