When home minister Sushilkumar Shinde tabled the Telangana bill in Parliament on Thursday, he could hardly have expected a member of the house to rush the Speaker's platform and squirt pepper spray into the air.
That's exactly what Congress MP Lagadapati did, forcing coughing members of Parliament to leave the building, covering their faces with handkerchiefs. Four MPs had to be taken to hospital. The Speaker later suspended 16 lawmakers who oppose the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create the new state of Telengana.
Pepper spray, which irritates the eyes and could cause temporary blindness, has been a topic of conversation ever since a spate of rapes last year prompted women in urban India to start carrying canisters in their purses. The substance gained popularity in the early 1970s as US forest workers used it to fight off bears and postmen employed it on vicious dogs. By the 1990s, US police departments were using it for self defence. Last year, pepper spray was used by authorities in Turkey and Brazil to battle protestors. But since it's easily available, it's been used in a variety of situations, such as these:
1) UC-Davis pepper spray incident
In November, 2011, University of California Davis police officer lieutenant John Pike pepper sprayed Occupy movement protesters on the campus. The image of the swaggering Pike quickly turned into a meme, as net users morphed him onto famous paintings, photographs of historical events and other settings.
2) Woman sprays news crew looking for a story
In October, a resident of Washington DC used pepper spray to get rid of a pesky news crew that had arrived there after rumours of a home invasion.
3) Sheriff's deputy secretly pepper sprays teenager's pizza
In 2012, officer Juan Tavera of the Orange Country police was writing up a ticket for the unnamed teenager for breaking traffic rules when he dosed the boy's pizza with some pepper spray. The victim and his friends got sick after going home to eat the pizza, and Tavera was arrested for assault.
4) Woman gets sprayed for whistling
In June, a Seattle woman was walking along the street, whistling, when a man rushed out of a nearby alley, screamed at her, "Why are you making noise and whistling?", pepper sprayed her, and ran away.
5) Three women steal from Wal-Mart, pepper spray their way out
Three women were accosted by Wal-Mart guards in Michigan while they were trying to get away with stolen goods in November. One of them whipped out her pepper spray and downed the attendants, and the three fled.
That's exactly what Congress MP Lagadapati did, forcing coughing members of Parliament to leave the building, covering their faces with handkerchiefs. Four MPs had to be taken to hospital. The Speaker later suspended 16 lawmakers who oppose the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create the new state of Telengana.
Pepper spray, which irritates the eyes and could cause temporary blindness, has been a topic of conversation ever since a spate of rapes last year prompted women in urban India to start carrying canisters in their purses. The substance gained popularity in the early 1970s as US forest workers used it to fight off bears and postmen employed it on vicious dogs. By the 1990s, US police departments were using it for self defence. Last year, pepper spray was used by authorities in Turkey and Brazil to battle protestors. But since it's easily available, it's been used in a variety of situations, such as these:
1) UC-Davis pepper spray incident
In November, 2011, University of California Davis police officer lieutenant John Pike pepper sprayed Occupy movement protesters on the campus. The image of the swaggering Pike quickly turned into a meme, as net users morphed him onto famous paintings, photographs of historical events and other settings.
2) Woman sprays news crew looking for a story
In October, a resident of Washington DC used pepper spray to get rid of a pesky news crew that had arrived there after rumours of a home invasion.
3) Sheriff's deputy secretly pepper sprays teenager's pizza
In 2012, officer Juan Tavera of the Orange Country police was writing up a ticket for the unnamed teenager for breaking traffic rules when he dosed the boy's pizza with some pepper spray. The victim and his friends got sick after going home to eat the pizza, and Tavera was arrested for assault.
4) Woman gets sprayed for whistling
In June, a Seattle woman was walking along the street, whistling, when a man rushed out of a nearby alley, screamed at her, "Why are you making noise and whistling?", pepper sprayed her, and ran away.
5) Three women steal from Wal-Mart, pepper spray their way out
Three women were accosted by Wal-Mart guards in Michigan while they were trying to get away with stolen goods in November. One of them whipped out her pepper spray and downed the attendants, and the three fled.
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