Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla voices displeasure over unruly behaviour by Opposition MPs

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday urged the Opposition MPs to maintain the decorum of the House and not to indulge in unruly behaviour. As soon as House met at 11 am, the Speaker said he was "very hurt" over Wednesday's incident. Birla noted that some members are repeating incidents that are against Parliament rules and warned that he will have to take action if this continues.

"Some members of the House are repeating incidents that are against Parliament rules; If this continues, I will have to take action against those members in order to maintain the decorum of the House," he said.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress' leader in Lok Sabha, then stood up to speak. He, however, blamed the government for suppressing the opposition voices and not allowing the MPs to raise the issues of common people. He even accused the government of maintaining a stubborn attitude.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the members who resorted to tearing papers don't even want to apologise. As the protest continued, Speaker Birla adjourned the proceedings.

Earlier on Wednesday, unruly scenes prevailed in the Lok Sabha when Congress and TMC MPs indulged in throwing papers towards the Chair as they protested and raised slogans over the Pegasus row. The House was adjourned repeatedly as an unrelenting opposition created uproar, repeating the scenes of the last over one week.

Soon after the Question Hour ended, Speaker Birla left the House and Rajendra Agrawal took over. When papers were being laid, Congress members Gurjeet Aujala, TN Prathapan, Hibi Eden and some others threw business papers of the day, some torn papers as well as placards at the Chair. A piece of the torn placard landed in the press gallery just above the Speaker's podium. The members repeatedly threw papers at the Chair and later towards the Treasury benches. One of the papers landed near the seat of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

Last week, Trinamool Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen was suspended for the remaining part of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Sen had snatched and tore the statement on Pegasus which the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw was reading.