The absence of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and his junior, Manoj Sinha, during Question Hour left the government red-faced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, forcing it to apologise after the Speaker said such instances should not recur.

As soon as the Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, announced question number 147 on 'Go-India Smart Card’, the seventh one on the list, the absence of both the Ministers was noticed, leading to agitated Congress members questioning the government’s seriousness on issues of importance in the House.

An embarassed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu had to step in and apologise.

“This will not be repeated,” he assured the House, adding that “He (Sinha) was there in the morning but probably left thinking his question would not come again. This should not happen,” Naidu said, apologising for the Minister’s absence.

He also suggested that the particular question relating to the Railway Ministry should be taken up on another day.

Amid loud protests, Congress leader in the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, said: “The Cabinet Minister should be there. This has happened earlier too.”

He requested the Speaker to ask the Government to follow House rules, “as this will have a repercussion on you (Speaker), not on them (Treasury)''.

As the din continued, a harried Speaker was heard saying: “What should I do? Should I hang him?"

She later told the House that she had been informed that the Cabinet Minister was busy somewhere else. “The State Minister was here. Ministers should be here till the end (of Question Hour). This should not happen again.”

Later, after the Question Hour was over, Suresh Prabhu entered the House and was seen engrossed in talks with Venkaiah Naidu.

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