Manmohan says sorry for MP's comment on Vajpayee

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday apologised in the Lok Sabha for certain inappropriate words used by a Congress member against former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The improper words were used during a debate on a judicial commission report on the demolition of Babri Mosque 17 years ago.
As soon as the question-hour began, opposition BJP members were on their feet demanding that the Congress member Beni Prasad Verma, who had made some unparliamentary references to Vajpayee, apologise to the House.
With the members unrelenting in their stand, the prime minister tendered an apology.
"I was not present in the House yesterday [Tuesday] but I have heard that some very undesirable developments took place. A member of our ruling coalition said something, which was not appropriate, and with regard to Vajpayeeji those words were used.
"I, on behalf of our government, apologise to the House that those words will not be repeated," Singh said, bringing down the curtains on the controversy and protests by BJP members who had created a din for one and a half hours in Lok Sabha on Tuesday drowning the reply by Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to the debate on the report of the Liberhan Commission.
As the BJP members raised slogans supporting Vajpayee, unfazed Chidambaram addressed the House for nearly 90 minutes during which he launched a blistering attack on BJP and Sangh Parivar's “pre-planned, conspiratorial and cold-blooded destruction of the Babri Masjid” in Ayodhya, the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on December 6, 1992.
He dismissed BJP's contention that the demolition was a spontaneous action by saffron activists and accused the main opposition party of “breaking every single promise” made before the Supreme Court, the federal government and the National Integration Council on carrying out voluntary labour at the disputed site in Ayodhya and protecting the structure.
Chidambaram admitted that the then federal government of Congress party headed by P V Narasimha Rao had made a “political misjudgement” induced by “lies and false promises” of BJP in 1992 and Congress “paid the price” for it.
He said the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh had “lied to the Government of India, the Supreme Court and the National Integration Council. That is the genesis of the destruction” of the Babri Mosque.