Congress vs Congress

Tempers in the Rajya Sabha are running high. This applies not just to the government and the opposition but also within the government. Earlier this week, while two Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs, collectively worth around Rs 10,000 crore, were heard shouting in the well of the House that Andhra Pradesh must not be divided, a Congress MP, Goverdhan Reddy, while observing them, was seen nodding vigorously and saying: “Telugu speakers, leave Hyderabad”. At this, new minister J D Seelam got so agitated that he said something to Reddy whose response caused Seelam to lunge at him. But Renuka Chowdhry, who has good reflexes, caught hold of Seelam and prevented him from actually assaulting Reddy. Similarly, when Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar said the House had other things to do besides considering everything that the Samajwadi Party wanted, MP Naresh Aggarwal said something that was expunged and advised Aiyar to hold his peace. This enraged Aiyar so much that he advanced on Agarwal. It is just a cumulative effect of all this that the Bharatiya Janata Party should have walked out of the Rajya Sabha, angered at being mentioned as the party that is responsible for holding up the House, when it was the Congress that was fighting its own MPs, Arun Jaitley said today.