Somnath Chatterjee: 'Zero hour is torture'

Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday described Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha as 'torture hour'.

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

"You cannot threaten the Chair," he told 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 United Progressive Alliance government,Chatterjee ordered his remarks to be stricken from the records .

Chatterjee said he always goes the extra mile to accommodate the members, but  people still complain.

He also pointed out that 14 MPs, whose names were called for raising important national issues, were absent.