House shamed by hooligans
14 Feb 2014 12:19 AM GMT
This unprecedented mayhem ensued after the union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde introduced the Telangana Bill in Parliament, which was strongly opposed by some Congressmen and TDP supporters. The incident raised several questions over the security of Parliament and sleuths are trying to find out how a canister of pepper spray was smuggled into the high-security zone.
Vijayawada Congress MP L Rajagopal, who owns Lanco Infratech with huge investments in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana, initially protested by shouting slogans in the well of the house and then suddenly brandished a pepper canister and sprayed it all around the house, leading to commotion and the adjournment of the house. He later broke the glass top of the parliamentary reporters.
Soon after the spray attack, the well of the house turned into a battle ground as fisticuffs broke out between members from Seemandhra and Congress leaders including Raj Babbar, Azharuddin and Lal Singh. A senior TDP leader M Venugopal Reddy too joined the ruckus and damaged a mike on the table of Secretary General and snatched papers from the Speaker’s table. There were reports that he pulled out a knife and tried to scare away the leaders who were in favour Telengana.
However, Venugopal has denied the charges and said, ‘I want to prevent the Bill (Telangana). I had moved a no-confidence motion and pulled out the microphone, it was not a knife.’ Commenting on the incident, Speaker Meira Kumar said, ‘What has happened has shamed us. It is a blot on democracy.’
Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath, while condemning the incident, said, ‘Resorting to violence in Parliament is nothing but anarchy.’ Later, 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh were suspended under Rule 374 A for rest of the session for the chaos.
Out of 18, 12 are from Congress including L Rajagopal, Sabbam Hari among others. Suspended TDP leaders included M Venugopala Reddy, Niramalli Sivaprasad and others, while suspended YSR Congress leaders were Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and M Rajamohan Reddy. The incident has invited ire from all political spheres. BJP’s LK Advani called the act as disgraceful for Parliament.
Vijayawada Congress MP L Rajagopal, who owns Lanco Infratech with huge investments in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana, initially protested by shouting slogans in the well of the house and then suddenly brandished a pepper canister and sprayed it all around the house, leading to commotion and the adjournment of the house. He later broke the glass top of the parliamentary reporters.
Soon after the spray attack, the well of the house turned into a battle ground as fisticuffs broke out between members from Seemandhra and Congress leaders including Raj Babbar, Azharuddin and Lal Singh. A senior TDP leader M Venugopal Reddy too joined the ruckus and damaged a mike on the table of Secretary General and snatched papers from the Speaker’s table. There were reports that he pulled out a knife and tried to scare away the leaders who were in favour Telengana.
However, Venugopal has denied the charges and said, ‘I want to prevent the Bill (Telangana). I had moved a no-confidence motion and pulled out the microphone, it was not a knife.’ Commenting on the incident, Speaker Meira Kumar said, ‘What has happened has shamed us. It is a blot on democracy.’
Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath, while condemning the incident, said, ‘Resorting to violence in Parliament is nothing but anarchy.’ Later, 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh were suspended under Rule 374 A for rest of the session for the chaos.
Out of 18, 12 are from Congress including L Rajagopal, Sabbam Hari among others. Suspended TDP leaders included M Venugopala Reddy, Niramalli Sivaprasad and others, while suspended YSR Congress leaders were Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and M Rajamohan Reddy. The incident has invited ire from all political spheres. BJP’s LK Advani called the act as disgraceful for Parliament.
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