Opposition trying to fish in troubled waters: Cong

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) Seeking to downplay the scuffle between members of the Left parties and the DMK in the Lok Sabha today, the Congress today described the reaction of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani to the incident as ''exaggerated.'' Referring to Mr Advani's observation that the House had witnessed a ''civil war'' between the two UPA partners, Congress Spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, ''These are exaggerated words intended to fish in troubled waters.'' ''Things are back to normal. Let us not sensationalise it,'' Mr Singhvi said when asked for his reaction at the routine press briefing here, adding ''if the Opposition sensationalises it, we deprecate it.'' ''We are a responsible democracy. It is the statesmanship shown by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and the CPM that sorted out the matter,'' he said. ''Let bygones be bygones,'' he added.

''These things happen in the heat of the moment,'' Mr Singhvi explained. A responsible Opposition meant that it should not try to fish in troubled waters, he added.

''They have shown the statesmanship. This has to be applauded,'' Mr Singhvi said, adding ''these are rarest of the rare incident.'' The Left members had tried to prevent Minister for Surface Transport T R Baalu from introducing the Indian Maritime University Bill, 2007 which proposes to set up a maritime research and studies centre of the national level in Tamil Nadu instead of Kolkata. One Left member even tried to snatch a copy of the Bill from the Minister.

UNI