Row in House over Lalu's remark

Parliament has never seen stormier weather. In both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took on Railway Minister Lalu Prasad over his statement detailing the train accident at Samalaya in Gujarat and the alleged attack on him.

In the Upper House, tempers ran so high that an assault on a member of the ruling coalition by some BJP-NDA leaders was narrowly averted.

Less than a week since the former Prime Minister announced that he was in "semi-retirement", Atal Bihari Vajpayee appeared to be in his old form as he took on Prasad in the Lok Sabha.

In the Lok Sabha, the day started with slogan shouting by both the Opposition and treasury benches over Prasad's stat-ement on the accident and the alleged attack on him.

Vajpayee, perhaps mindful that senior Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders were in Delhi for a conclave, loudly proclaimed his membership of the RSS and demanded that remarks made by Prasad on the Sangh Parivar in Parliament be expunged from records.

"Charges are being traded without any foundation. I demand that names of organisations mentioned in Prasad's speech be expunged," he said. "The railway minister's charges are so absurd that the home minister too refused to read out the statement, he was supposed to, on the incident," said Vajpayee.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had to intervene several times as the noise level in the House did not come down. The House was adjourned twice. Chatterjee asked both sides to "maintain the decorum of the House."

Vajpayee took on the Speaker as well saying, "how can we maintain the dignity of the House when baseless charges are being made." He demanded that the railway minister take the moral responsibility for the accident and quit the Cabinet.

At this juncture, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Prasad should also have his say on the matter. Prasad said although Vajpayee had been claiming that he was "semi-retired" he was trotted out by the BJP whenever it found itself in trouble.

"I stand by my statement. Also my re-cord of railway safety is much better than my predecessor Nitish Kumar," he said.

Raising the issue in the second half of the session, BJP chief LK Advani said the government should not defend Prasad "who had ruined Bihar in the past 15 years of his party's rule." At this, Rashtriya Janata Dal members verbally attacked Advani on a personal matter and proceedings were stalled again.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned after Rudra Narayan Pani and SS Ahluwalia came close to exchanging blows with VS Yadav (RJD).

The House reconvened just to let Priyaranjan Dasmunshi make his reply on India's water policy when slogans of "chara chor kursi chhod" rent the air. It was adjourned again.