Pepper spray, gun, knife: How MPs carried in banned items

NEW DELHI: Parliament is no stranger to unparliamentary activities even by members, and in recent years has proved vulnerable to serious breaches on several occasions.

On February 13, 2014, then Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal whipped out a pepper spray during the proceedings and spritzed it on his colleagues inside Lok Sabha. He was protesting against the legislation to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.This came with unconfirmed reports that another MP was in possession of a knife.

In the late 1990s, a major controversy broke out when news spread that then Bihar MP Anand Mohan Singh was found with a gun in the LS chamber. During a Parliament session, when Singh was being taken out of the House by marshals on the orders of the Speaker, he broke a glass door pane, which resulted in a cut on his hand. In the melee, a gun fell from his pocket, startling everyone around.
The mid 1990s also saw an incident similar to the one that played out on Wednesday. The movement for the formation of Uttarakhand was at its peak and three protestors jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the Lok Sabha. The trio was apprehended and released after a short detention.
However, the instances of Members of Parliament carrying banned substances or devices inside Parliament are qualitatively different from visitors entering the gallery with similar material.