Mention of monkey menace in North Block evokes laughter in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Mention of monkey menace in the corridors of power and how it can haunt even the high and mighty evoked peals of laughter in the Rajya Sabha today, even as a Congress member blamed the simians for mysterious disappearance of files.

Members burst into laughter in course of a serious debate on destruction of Home Ministry's 11,100 files when Rajeev Shukla (Cong) condemned the act and said the situation was so bad that files were kept scattered in the corridors, where monkeys create havoc.

He said that to top it all, a minister in the present government was dead against any action against the primates. Shukla said even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would shudder to recall how dreadful it was to pass through the corridors of Finance Ministry when he was Finance Minister.

Singh who was sitting in the opposition benches could not control his smile.

Shukla said it was a common practice to fix the blame of any missing file on monkeys and urged the government to initiate immediate measures to protect the files. He said the situation had worsened to such an extent that the government had to hire 'langurs' to keep the monkeys at bay.