The United Progressive Alliance government was subjected to major embarrassment in Lok Sabha on Monday when Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was forced by an agitated Opposition and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to withdraw his un-parliamentary remarks against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The issue was raised by Prabhunath Singh (Janata Dal-United) immediately after the Question Hour, demanding a public apology from the Minister or his dismissal from the Cabinet by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
National Democratic Alliance members trooped into the well and stalled the proceedings for over 10 minutes as the Minister sought to justify his comments, stating that the use of such language as '
jeeb khinchunga' (I will pull out your tongue) was a common and accepted idiom in rural areas and he had to resort to such expressions as the state government