National Democratic Alliance members were agitated by Congress' Beni Prasad Verma's remark against former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee during a debate on the Liberhan Commission report.
BJP and allies today created pandemonium in the Lok Sabha after a Congress member made demeaning remarks against former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, forcing two adjournments.
Members of the National Democratic Alliance were agitated when Beni Prasad Verma used a derogatory word against Vajpayee during a debate on the Liberhan Commission report.
The NDA members demanded an apology from Verma for the comments.
Speaker Meera Kumar expunged the word, and home minister P Chidambaram expressed apology on behalf of Verma. But the agitating members were not pacified, forcing the speaker to adjourn the House for 20 minutes till 5pm.
When the House re-assembled, the ruckus continued with BJP members insisting on apology by Verma.
At the behest of the speaker, Verma said, "The House is above all. If I have hurt them (BJP members), I regret."
This did not satisfy the BJP members, who continued to demand his apology, drawing the attention of the speaker to the demeaning word.
BJP president Rajnath Singh said expression of "regret" by Verma was not sufficient, and he should apologise, failing which his membership should be terminated as he had "insulted" the House.
The speaker said everyone had lot of respect for Vajpayee, and any inappropriate comment against him was "sad".
The speaker said Verma should not have used the word.
She, however, added that since she had expunged the word, Chidambaram had apologised, and Verma had expressed regret, the matter should end there and normal functioning of the House should be allowed.
But the NDA members, however, were not satisfied, and continued to create uproar, forcing Kumar to adjourn the House again for 10 minutes.
Earlier, as soon as Verma made the remark, BJP members trooped into the well, despite an assurance from the chair that the comments would be expunged if found unparliamentary.
During the course of his speech, Verma had also said that BJP leader LK Advani had no right to debate about the birthplace of Lord Ram. "Does he himself know where he was born? He (Advani) was scared of the Muslims, so he came running," he said.
Opposition members also took objection to this remark, saying he had no right to comment on anybody's birthplace.
As the House came to a standstill over the issue of apology, Chidambaram, who had just walked in, apologised on Verma's behalf.
"Sir, I was not here. I am not aware of exactly what was said. But if something was said which hurt anybody, I apologise. You can look into it and expunge it," the home minister said.
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