You lack politeness, Sushma tells Kamal Nath

Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj Tuesday told Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath to be polite and change his style if he wanted the house to run.

"You lack politeness. More than what you say, how you say matters. If you address this one issue, other things can be taken care of," Sushma Swaraj told Kamal Nath after a spat between the minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi.

Joshi was angry with Kamal Nath over the way he spoke to him.

"How can you speak to me like this? No one has spoken to me like this in 40 years?" a furious Joshi asked in the Lok Sabha.

The minister admitted he had spoken in anger but insisted he did not mean any disrespect to the veteran parliamentarian.

"I respect Joshiji, he is a senior leader. I spoke to him angrily that the house does not belong to me and that it belonged to him also. But if my words have hurt him, I take them back," said Kamal Nath.

The spat took place when Joshi, who was to open the debate on the food security bill, asked the minister to control Congress members protesting against the creation of Telangana.

Janata Dal-United's Sharad Yadav said political parties wanted the house to run and it was for the Congress to rein in its members.

"We understand the issue... You can disrupt for a few minutes but not the whole day," said Yadav.