Indian Parliament evacuated, lawmakers hospitalized following pepper spray attack by Congress member

The Indian Parliament was Thursday evacuated and a number of Indian lawmakers were hospitalized after a ruling Congress party member used pepper spray to disrupt proceedings as soon as the government introduced a bill to form a new state of Telangana in the south. Congress lawmaker L. Rajgopal from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh applied the pepper spray as soon as Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde introduced the Telangana Bill in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), triggering severe coughing among other members of Parliament. The 53-year-old lawmaker was opposing against the bill which proposes bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to form the country's 29th state of Telangana, along with other Congress members from the state. Local TV channels showed footage of lawmakers being rushed to hospitals and the Parliament being evacuated, as some members were seen coming out with watery eyes and seemed to be suffocating. The impact was so severe that a doctor was rushed in and Lok Sabha had to be aired out, reports said. "I am too anguished, I am too anguished," Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said, after adjourning the lower house following the attack. Indian Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath also expressed anguish over the incident. "I am told that knives, pepper powder and other weapons were brought into the house. It's a big blot on parliamentary democracy," he told the media outside the Parliament. "Strong action will be taken against erring members of Parliament as it was an attempt to kill members," another Indian minister, Rajiv Shukla, said. Incidentally, Rajgopal was one of the six lawmakers expelled by the Congress party Wednesday for bringing in a no-confidence motion against Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the proposed formation of Telangana.