PTI
 
New Delhi, Aug 21: Members from Tamil Nadu and Kerala clashed in the Lok Sabha on Monday over the creation of a railway division, prompting Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to disapprove their behaviour asking them to "behave like Indians".

The clash on the issue, the subject of a calling attention motion by Kerala members, led to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad steering clear of the sensitive matter saying he would urge the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the two Chief Ministers and others to resolve the problem.

"I will request the Prime Minister to call both the Chief Ministers and sort out the issue. I will also be there," he said dismissing as "imaginary" reports that he planned to inaugurate the new division next month.

"I am the Railway Minister and I don't know about any such inauguration," Prasad said suggesting that any forward movement in the matter was possible only after cooling off tempers and settling of the issue.

With Tamil Nadu MPs, cutting across party lines, objecting to the motion and clashing with those from Kerala, the Speaker chided them saying "sorry, we are not thinking of ourselves as Indians. We are Indians first. Is this the assembly of Tamil Nadu and Kerala."

"The whole country is being divided on issues like water and on this. ... we all seem to be making efforts to divide the country. Patriotism seems to be only for soldiers, members don't have to show patriotism. This is a very sorry state of affairs," he said.

The Left MPs from Kerala, while maintaining that they were not against creation of the new railway division, said a major portion of the rail network under the Palghat division was being taken away for the Salem project, rendering the old division smaller than the new one.