Parliament disruptions make my heart bleed: PM

PM Manmohan Singh expressed sorrow as turmoil over Telangana on Wednesday derailed the presentation of the interim rail budget with railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge being forced to cut short his speech in Lok Sabha. Turmoil in RS over Telangana

The unprecedented action by four central ministers to move into the well of the House and disrupted railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge’s interim rail budget speech on Wednesday prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to say that his “heart bleeds” over frequent disruptions in Parliament.

“My heart bleeds to see what is happening in the house,” Singh told a group of MPs soon after the Lok Sabha was adjourned over the Telangana issue.

Read:Turmoil in Rajya Sabha over Telangana

The government is apparently mulling steps to counter possible disruptions during the presentation of vote-on-account on February 17. One view is to suspend protesting MPs and other is to let P Chidambaram to present it in the din.

Central ministers K Sambasiva Rao, D Purandeswari, K Chiranjeevi and Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy had rushed towards speaker Meira Kumar to join the other protesting MPs from Seemandhra.

Full Coverage: Telangana, the troubled state

However, human resources development minister Pallam Raju justified the action and said the PM’s comments were not “fair”.

Chiranjeevi later blamed the government for the disruption, saying they only wanted “justice” for Seemandhra.

Some MPs from Seemandhra and Telangana nearly came to blows in the house. “It’s a matter of shame,” Kamal Nath said.

The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned following disruptions over Telangana.