Stormy meeting between Speaker and BJP leaders over T-bill

The meeting of BJP leaders with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar over the Telangana Bill today generated heat as the opposition leaders were understood to have expressed their unhappiness over the manner of introduction of the legislation in the House.
Sources said senior BJP leader L K Advani and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj raised strong objections to the manner of introduction of the bill amid pandemonium caused by anti-Telangana MPs.
They said Advani questioned why the crucial Telangana bill was brought as supplementary agenda and circulated among members only at 2PM even when attempts were made to bring it at 12 noon.

The government later claimed that the bill was introduced in Lok Sabha.
The Speaker is learnt to have told the agitated opposition leaders that it was within her prerogative to introduce the bill and list it in the agenda.
Dissatisfied with the Speaker's response, the BJP leaders said this action was "unprecedented" and was "unheard of" in the history of parliamentary democracy.

After their meeting, Swaraj told reporters that they did not agree with the government's contention that the bill was introduced and insisted it was not.
They, however, lodged their protest with the Speaker.
"The bill has not been introduced and we do not agree with the government's contention," she later said.