New Delhi, April 30
“It is a torture hour for the Chair.” This was how a visibly anguished Speaker Somnath Chatterjee described the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

His observation came at the fag end of Zero Hour which saw Chatterjee pulling up members on a number of occasions, and even once chiding them for turning the House into an 'akhada' (wrestling ring).

“You cannot threaten the Chair,” he told some Samajwadi Party members from Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, including Chandrapal Singh, who were raising the issue of acute scarcity of water in the drought-hit area.

“You are not serving the people by shouting. Look at your behaviour... you are threatening. I am not going to accept this. You should know how to behave in the House,” he said, adding: “Kuchh padte nahin, kuchh sunte nahin (they don't study or listen).”

At the same time, he expected the government to take note of the serious problem affecting the people of the region and the “very strong feelings” of the MPs representing it.

When Congress chief whip Madhusudan Mistry sought to disrupt BJP's Sumitra Mahajan as she was raising the issue of "discrimination" against Madhya Pradesh by the UPA government, Chatterjee ordered not to record his remarks. — PTI