High drama in RS on T-bill, Secy Gen heckled

High drama was witnessed in Rajya Sabha today with Secretary General Shumsher K Sheriff being heckled by a TDP member who was trying to snatch papers from him related to Telangana bill.

C M Ramesh (TDP) and his party colleague Y S Chowdhary, opposing the Telangana bill, stormed the Well as soon as the House met at noon after one adjournment over the Telangana issue.

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 tried to reach out to the papers.

There was heckling and even the spectacles of Sheriff were about to fall as Ramesh tried to forcibly take the papers.

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.

Angry at the behaviour of the member, Kurien said, "This is very unfortunate. The Chair should not be attacked. Keep your hands off. What you are doing is very unfortunate."

Immediately, the House was adjourned till 2 PM.

When the House reassembled, Kurien referred to the issue and said the behaviour of Ramesh was "highly deplorable and unbecoming of the member".

He said it amounted to breach of privilege of the House.

Ramesh then rose to say his action was not intentional but only emotional and later apologised.

"I regret this and am feeling sorry....I apologise for this incident," he said.

After this, Kurien said he was proposing to take action which he has now decided to drop.