Unruly scenes in Bengal assembly over minister's remark

Members of the Left parties andthe Congress rushed to the well of the West Bengal Assembly onThursday, protesting certain comments by TMC minister TapasRoy when he was speaking on the ''Jai Shri Ram'' slogan incidentat a programme to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birthanniversary at Victoria Memorial here.

Speaker Biman Banerjee ordered that the objectionablewords used by Roy against some members of the Left parties andthe Congress would not be in the record.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declined to speak atthe official programme to celebrate Bose's 125th birthanniversary on January 23 after ''Jai Shri Ram'' slogans wereraised from the audience in the presence of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Roy and the legislators of the Left parties and theCongress got engaged in arguments.

The protesting members, led by Sujan Chakraborty ofthe CPI(M) and Asit Mitra of the Congress went back to theirseats on a request by the Speaker.

As a point of information, minister Partha Chatterjeesaid in the House that the chief minister, who was an inviteeat the Victoria Memorial event, was insulted by some peoplewho had raised the slogans.

He said the incident occurred in the presence of theprime minister and all members of the House should condemn it.

The Speaker said Mamata Banerjee is the leader of theHouse and the incident has hurt all the members.

The Congress had come in support of Banerjee, sayingthat raising slogans in this way was an insult to the chiefminister, as the CPI(M) had described the incident as''disgraceful to the state''.