NDA fails to derail Lalu

It was noise and pandemonium all around but Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rail Budget speech chugged on in the Lok Sabha on Monday non-stop till it reached its destination.

The railway minister's perseverence in the face of unrelenting slogan-shouting by National Democratic Alliance members over the Quattrocchi issue also won him a pat from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

As soon as Yadav completed his hour-long speech amid the din and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the House for the day, Singh and Gandhi walked up to the railway minister to greet him.

Singh, wearing a smile on his face, patted Yadav and shook hands with him. A smiling Gandhi expressed her appreciation through namaskar.

While Yadav read out the 31-page

Budget speech, the NDA members kept pace with him throughout, shouting slogans continuously.

The NDA wanted to prevent the railway minister from reading out the Budget speech.

Samajwadi Party was with the NDA in the Well of the House, demanding that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the 1986 Bofors case, be brought to India.

But after joining slogan-shouting chorus with NDA for about 20 minutes, the SP members staged a walkout.

The House witnessed intermittent skirmishes between the NDA and ruling benches, particularly when members of the Opposition linked Sonia Gandhi to Quattrocchi.

Railway Budget 2007-08: Complete Coverage