It was noise and pandemonium all around but Lalu Prasad's Rail Budget speech chugged on in the Lok Sabha today non-stop till it reached its destination.The Railway Minister's perseverence in the face of unrelenting slogan-shouting by NDA members over the Quattrocchi issue also won him a pat from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.As soon as Prasad completed his hour-long speech amid the din and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the House for the day, Singh and Gandhi walked up to the Railway Minister to greet him.Singh, wearing a smile on his face, patted Prasad and shook hands with him. A smiling Gandhi also expressed her appreciation through the gesture of namaskar (folded hands).While Prasad read out the 31-page budget speech, the NDA members kept pace with him throughout the address, shouting slogans continuously. The NDA wanted to prevent the Railway Minister from reading out the Rail Budget speech.Samajwadi Party was with the NDA in the Well of the House, demanding that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the 1986 Bofors case, be brought to India. But after joining slogan-shouting chorus with NDA for about 20 minutes, the SP members staged a walkout.The House witnessed intermittent skirmishes between the NDA and ruling benches, particularly when Opposition members linked Sonia Gandhi to Quattrocchi.
