Protest in RS over Telangana, Secy Gen manhandled

NEW DELHI: Noisy protests erupted in Rajya Sabha today with members opposed to division of Andhra Pradesh trooping into the Well and a TDP member snatching papers from Secretary General Shumsher K Sheriff forcing two adjournments in the pre-lunch sitting.

Samajwadi Party MPs were also in the Well seeking a resolution to condemn the black out of Lok Sabha proceedings during the passage the controversial Telangana bill.

Raising the issue, Naresh Agrawal (SP) alleged that the manner in which the Telangana bill was passed in Lok Sabha yesterday, it seemed democracy was "murdered".

C M Ramesh (TDP) and his party colleague Y S Chowdhary strongly protested against the Telangana bill. Ramesh lost his cool as soon as Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked the Secretary General to read the message from Lok Sabha, which obviously included a mention about passage of the bill to carve out a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

Ramesh snatched papers from Sheriff before he could read it out and hit at the mike on his table prompting angry remarks from Kurien, who said, "This is very unfortunate. The Chair should not be attacked. Keep your hands off. What you are doing is very unfortunate."

Security staff of Parliament rushed to the aid of the Secretary General as Ramesh kept shouting against the passage of the Telangana bill in Lok Sabha and maintaining that it was done in an unconstitutional manner.

Chowdhary kept shouting "undemocratic, undemocratic" even as Kurien rejected the demand of the Samajwadi Party to discuss yesterday's happenings in Lok Sabha saying "you cannot discuss Lok Sabha in this House."

Chowdhary, however, argued that Lok Sabha is within the country and shouted "please restore democracy".

Amid din, Kurien adjourned the House till 2 PM. Similar scenes were witnessed earlier when the House met in the morning, leading to its adjournment till noon.

Samajwadi Party MPs wanted to take up a resolution condemning black out of proceedings of Lok Sabha. "Please adhere to procedure. Please do not discuss the other House here," Chairman Hamid Ansari ruled.

This led to an argument between Chowdhary, who was standing right below the podium, and Ansari.