New Delhi, March 22
The Rajya Sabha today witnessed a new low with AIADMK members breaking mikes and tossing papers in the air while raising Sri Lankan Tamils’ issue.

The House also witnessed acrimonious exchanges between DMK members and Renuka Chowdhury of the Congress over certain remarks made by her soon after she left the Chair while adjourning the House for the day.

Her remarks infuriated the DMK members who protested strongly, leading to a tiff.

Two of the four mikes on the Chairman’s table were wrenched out and broken by AIADMK members, who were agitating over Sri Lankan Tamils’ issue. AIADMK member V Maitreyan was in the lead in this act during which papers were torn and tossed in the air and some stationery was damaged.

The trouble did not end even after Chowdhury adjourned the House as she made certain remarks against the protesting members, thus adding fuel to the fire.

Infuriated DMK members, including Tiruchi Siva, Selvaganapathi and Vasanthy Stanley protested against her remarks, terming these as un-parliamentary.

DMK members also threatened that they would not allow Chowdhury to occupy the Chair in future. “You cannot treat us like animals,” they shouted back.

Though Chowdhury left the House, Congress members Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and RPN Singh and some senior members, including those from the Opposition, had to intervene to placate DMK members.

Chowdhury had to later apologise to them to resolve the matter.

The DMK and the AIADMK presented a picture of cooperation on Thursday, allowing the government to clear two crucial Bills-the Appropriation Bill and the anti-rape legislation-to apparently make up for the lost opportunity on the last day of the first half of the budget session.

Setting the mood for the day to come, members of the two southern parties were up on their feet as soon as Chairman Hamid Ansari walked in. And just when curtains were about to be drawn on the session, the bedlam generated by them left House property damaged.

As soon as the House re-assembled in the afternoon, DMK and AIADMK MPs started raising slogans, disrupting Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid’s statement on the return of two Italian marines.