By IANS
New Delhi : The Lok Sabha was adjourned for 15 minutes Tuesday following protests against Indian envoy Ronen Sen’s reported remarks in the US dubbing critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal as “headless chicken”.
As soon as the house met, opposition and Left MPs were on their feet denouncing Sen’s reported statement published in a US-based news website.
They were not satisfied even with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s explanation that Sen’s comments were “totally unwarranted and unacceptable”.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also assured the MPs that if the remarks had indeed been made, action could be taken against the ambassador. “Parliament is not that powerless. We can take action but not on the basis of newspaper reports.”
Chatterjee also accepted opposition leader L.K. Advani’s suggestion that the full text of the interview could be asked for and studied. After that action may be taken against the ambassador.
But MPs from the Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued disrupting the proceedings, forcing an exasperated speaker to adjourn the house till 11.30 p.m.
In his statement earlier, Mukherjee said he had contacted the ambassador, who had stated that some of his reported comments had been published “either deliberately or through misunderstanding”.
The correspondent had also misquoted the ambassador “in several respects”, the minister said.
Mukherjee added: “In democracy there will always be dissention and divergence of opinions. Nobody can accuse others who hold divergent views. I regret the alleged comments, which have hurt the feelings of honourable members.”