By IANS,
New Delhi : The first ruling from Meira Kumar, the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, came when two Yadav leaders from her home state of Bihar exchanged heated arguments in the house.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad was making a speech to congratulate Meira Kumar when Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav opposed some of his remarks, leading to a heated discussion between the two that forced the speaker to issue a directive to reporters to expunge the arguments.
It was the first intervention that the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha made to maintain order in the house.
Meira Kumar made history earlier in the day as the former diplomat and Dalit leader became the first woman to hold the prestigious constitutional position.
Trinamool Congress leader and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee took a dig at her archrivals – the Left parties – saying that it was good to see “one or two members”, who had not supported Meira Kumar’s nomination for the speaker’s post, supporting her after her election.
“You had the support of all the sections except one or two. They have also extended their support after your election,” Banerjee said while congratulating Meira Kumar.
Basudeb Acharya, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader in the house, said the Left could not support Meira Kumar’s nomination as the Congress-led government had not approached them “properly”.
“We were not properly approached by the government for supporting your nomination,” Acharya said while congratulating the new speaker.
Acharya, incidentally, was corrected by members many times for addressing the chair as “speaker sir”. The veteran parliamentarian corrected himself and said “madam speaker”.