New Delhi/Kolkata, July 8 (IANS): The Lok Sabha was disrupted Tuesday with protests over the rail budget forcing repeated adjournments while members of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP got into an ugly spat inside the house.
Trinamool members, who were constantly near the speaker's podium, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government, alleged that some Bharatiya Janata Party MPs abused and threatened them.
As soon as the house met in the afternoon for a scheduled discussion on price rise, the Trinamool MPs trooped near the speaker's podium and started shouting slogans against the Railway Budget, which was presented earlier in the day.
They claimed that the rail budget ignored the state of West Bengal and demanded that the budget be taken back.
The members also shouted slogans against Modi.
Soon BJP members were seen shouting slogans from their seats to counter the Trinamool members.
Congress' deputy chief in the Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh made efforts to speak on price rise, but was unable to continue.
Amid the din, some BJP members said something to their protesting Trinamool counterparts and soon ministers like Prakash Javadekar and Kalraj Mishra rushed to intervene to stop the exchanges.
The house was adjourned for an hour following this.
Outside the Parliament House, Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that a BJP MP had "threatened and abused Trinamool members who were protesting peacefully".
Trinamool's Kalyan Banerjee, who was leading the protest inside the house, said: "BJP MPs threatened us and badly abused us."
When the house re-assembled, party MP Saugata Roy said that some BJP MPs had "threatened to strip and beat up our MPs".
Following continued ruckus, the speaker adjourned the house for the day.
In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed "indecent comments" were made against her and her Trinamool MPs, and alleged that an attacker pulled at Ghosh Dastidar's saree when they were protesting the "injustice" done to Bengal in the Railway Budget.
"Indecent language was used against me. Bad language was used against my women MPs. My women MPs faced misbehaviour," she told media persons.
"Whatever happened is very dirty. They (Trinamool MPs) are all shocked. I will speak to my party," she said.
Countering the allegations, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said in the Lok Sabha that "people have elected this government with a massive mandate and all 545 members are also members. The issue is who has disturbed the house. Those who have disturbed the house, even after complaint, they are not maintaining order".
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi told reporters: "They can't find fault in the budget. On budget nobody in the opposition really had anything of substance to speak of, so they orchestrated all these things and after this, they said Narendra Modi chor hai (Modi is a thief)."
"I have asked everybody, no one used any language against women, everyone has denied it, no such thing has happened," she said.