Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) A slur by Trinamool Congress member Sudip Bandyopadhyay against veteran CPI-M leader Basudeb Acharia triggered noisy opposition protests disrupting the Lok Sabha Tuesday.
Left party MPs staged a sit-in near Speaker Meira Kumar’s podium demanding an apology from Bandyopadhyay, who was not present in the house when it resumed at 5.30 p.m. after two disruptions earlier over the Mumbai train strike.

The slogan-shouting MPs refused to return to their seats despite the speaker repeatedly trying to pacify them and requesting them to allow the house to function.

As Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) deputy leader P. Karunakaran led the protests, Acharia calmly sat in his seat.

Amidst the ruckus, the speaker allowed Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to move two bills, which were passed without discussion within 15 minutes of the evening proceedings before the house was adjourned for the day.

The ruckus started in the afternoon at the end of a brief discussion on the railway motormen’s strike in Mumbai.

MPs, cutting across party lines, blamed Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s railway ministry for the strike which paralysed train services in Mumbai. The minister was not in the house.

Bandyopadhyay said his leader was “pro-people”. He said she could not come to the house as she was busy filing the nominations of her party workers for the civic polls in West Bengal.

Referring to the Maharashtra government’s decision to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the striking Mumbai train drivers, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Das Gupta asked: “Who has given the order to impose ESMA on the agitating workers in Mumbai? ESMA will not be tolerated.”

He also said the house wanted to know whether it was the home minister or the railway minister who issued the order to invoke ESMA.

When Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was replying, Acharia intervened and asked: “What about ESMA being imposed on the agitating workers in Mumbai?”

That is when Bandyopadhyay shouted at him and used unparliamentary words, leading to unruly scenes in the house.

The whole house was stunned for a moment. Central ministers Ambika Soni, Pawan Kumar Bansal and other ministers and MPs from the treasury benches tried to pacify the Trinamool Congress MP.

Protesting the remark against their leader, Left MPs, including Ramachandra Dome, M.B. Rajesh and P.K. Biju, rushed towards the Trinamool MP who was protectively surrounded by ministers and Congress MPs.

“The Trinamool MP must tender an apology in the house. Otherwise, the opposition will not allow the house to function,” said Gopinath Munde, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.