NEW DELHI, July 23: After a year in the business of minding unruly MPs, Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma seems to have got the hang of it. Ignore them. And if that doesn't work, get tough.

On the opening day of Parliament's monsoon session, Sangma faced a group of some 50 slogan-shouting members who converged at the well of the House in front of the Speaker's podium. Faced with similar situations in the past, he would normally plead for order and ask the MPs to get back to their seats.This time he chose to remain mum.

As the Congressmen shouted slogans demanding the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra and the Shiv Sainiks countered them with a demand for the sacking of the Bihar government, Sangma simply ignored them.

For a long time, he just leafed through a sheaf of written answers to questions tabled in Parliament.

Then he got an aide to note down the names of all the MPs creating the racket in the well.

But after 35 minutes of relentless tumult, Sangma decided to act tough. Coming up with an outburst which stunned the slogan-shouters, he said, ``What is the difference between the Parliament of India and the Boat Club?''

The reference was to the popular venue in the Capital for street-protests.In a veiled warning that seemed to work, Sangma said he had taken down the names of the those shouting slogans. And he even threatened to resign, if the disorder continued.

``I will not allow it,'' he was heard saying. ``I will resign from the post.''

But that was perhaps said in the heat of the moment. For the Speaker warned almost in the same breath that he was not one to give up easily.

``And for your information, I am not going to adjourn (the House),'' he said, warning that he was prepared to sit through the disruption for the ``whole day and night,'' if needed. But by then, both the Congress and the Shiv Sena members had returned to their seats. Though there were disruptions later in the day, the worst was over. There was even some appreciative thumping of desks for the Speaker.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.