Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi engaged in a verbal duel with AIADMK MLA A. Anbalagan during a Gandhi Jayanti celebration in Uppalam in Puducherry on Tuesday.
The argument broke out when the mike was switched off during Anbalagan's speech. Kiran Bedi claimed on her Twitter account that despite many requests from the panel of ministers to limit his speech, he continued to speak. She asked the event organisers to switch off the mike which prompted Anbalagan to lose his cool and start shouting at her. Bedi claims in her tweet that this was not the first time that Anbalagan had resorted to a shouting match on a stage. According to reports, Anbalagan had been heavily criticising Kiran Bedi for holding back developmental works in his constituency. He claimed that no work been done in his constituency under Kiran Bedi.
Kiran Bedi can be seen folding her hands and requesting the MLA to leave the stage. She can be heard saying, "Please go.". Anbalagan responds in the same way and signals her to leave the stage, which elicits laughter from the audience. They engage in further arguments as other panelists try to intervene. Kiran Bedi again requests the MLA to leave the stage and says, "Please do not spoil our function". But Anbalagan continues to shout at the others who were present on the stage.
Though the many in the audience can be heard laughing, it does not stop the MLA as he goes on a rant criticising the government and accusing the governor of misusing funds.
Kiran Bedi clarified in her tweet that the event was held to give away awards for good work done in making Puducherry open defecation free. In an earlier tweet she had talked about achievement made by the government of India and Puducherry to achieve the status of open defecation free.
