Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In an embarrassing development for a functional democracy, two senior politicians came to blows in a Parliamentary Standing Committee meet on Thursday.
According to reports, Congress MP Rashid Alvi and BJP’s SS Ahluwalia had a scuffle during the meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee on UID.
Alvi has alleged that he was "pushed from the back" by BJP's Deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha SS Ahluwalia who was agitated over his charge of leaking draft reports of the Standing Committee.
The alleged incident occurred immediately after a Standing Committee meeting in front of several people, including some journalists, and Alvi said he preferred not to hit back in the interest of the dignity of Parliament.
Alvi said Ahluwalia resorted to the "uncultured" action after he alleged during the meeting of the Committee that the BJP member was leaking deliberations to the media before finalisation of the report.
A Congress member of Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, Alvi said he told the meeting that he had received a call on his mobile from a journalist who mistook him for Ahluwalia and sought his comments on the draft report. He said it was not proper for anyone to leak the draft reports.
The Congress member told reporters that he will bring the incident to the notice of BJP Parliamentary Party leader LK Advani but added he has "pardoned" Ahluwalia.
"It will be in his interest as also that of Parliament if he desists from such actions", Alvi said adding he would also be bringing the incident to the attention of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha.
Even though state assemblies in India have witnessed such acts, it was probably the first time that such a shameful incident happened in a Parliamentary Committee meet.
First Published: Thursday, December 08, 2011, 17:52