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MUST SEE: The wildest Parliament fights of all time
In the high-pressure cooker that is politics, tempers can be explosive and fuses short. Rediff.com brings you some of the most dramatic political punch-ups and fist fights from across the globe where parliaments turned into boxing rinks.
Robert Gibbs, the then White House press secretary, argues with an official from the Prime Minister's Office after the travelling the White House press pool were initially refused entry to the bilateral meeting between United States President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, November 8, 2010. White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson looks on.
According to a reporter accompanying the Obama, when Indian officials cut the number of reporters permitted into the room where Dr Singh, Obama and their delegations were meeting from the agreed upon number of eight to five, Gibbs was livid.
'Gibbs,' the reporter wrote, 'announced loudly and persistantly on steps of Hyderabad House that he would pull POTUS (President of the United States) of bilat (bilateral meeting) with PM Singh unless "the White House 8," as we've come to be known, were all allowed in.'
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The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Vice speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Adam Martynyuk scuffles with his deputy Oleg Lyashko during a session in the chamber in Kiev on May 18.
Lyashko asked to make a speech but was refused. He then reportedly called Martynyuk a 'Pharisee'. Martynyuk leapt to his feet and lunged at his deputy, pinched his throat in a 'death grip' while jamming two fingers into his temple.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Claudio Barbato, a member of the opposition Futuro e Libert (FLI) party, fights with Fabio Ranieri from the Northern League in Parliament in Rome October 26. The Italian deputies exchanged blows in parliament as tensions over a tough economic reform programme came to a head.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Lawmakers Sirri Sakik (left) from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party and Mehmet Erdogan (second from right) from the ruling Justice and Development Party argue during a debate at the parliament in Ankara on February 10.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Deputies scuffle during a session in the chamber of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on December 16, 2010 Opposition deputies brought proceedings to a halt inside the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday, when they staged an action to support former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who said on she had been targeted in a criminal probe.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Lawmakers of opposition parties help their fellow lawmaker (top) who tries to escape as they scuffle with lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party at the National Assembly plenary session hall in Seoul December 8, 2010. The opposition lawmakers were trying to prevent GNP lawmakers from passing new bills, including the new year's budget bill.
South Korea's government rammed through the 2011 budget amid brawls between lawmakers over billions of dollars of spending on controversial projects to clean up the country's rivers.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Deputies scuffle during the opening session in the chamber of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev September 7, 2010.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislators scuffle with ruling Nationalist Party legislators (top) at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on July 8, 2010.
Taiwan legislators threw objects, splashed water and kicked one another, sending two to the hospital in a brawl over how fast to ratify a trade pact with China that is shaping up as a pivotal election issue.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislators cover the mouth of Nationalist (KMT) legislator Chao Li-yun during a parliament session inside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on April 2010.
The session was held as part of a bill amendment on whether students from mainland China will be allowed to attend Taiwan universities.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Deputies scuffle during a session in the chamber of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on April 27, 2010.
Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside Ukraine's parliament as the chamber approved an agreement allowing the Russian Navy to extend its stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Bengi Yildiz, a parliamentarian from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, reacts as he scuffles with some members of parliament during a debate at parliament in Ankara on April 20, 2010.
The parliament in Turkey was debating changes to the constitution.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Turkey's members of Parliament of the ruling Justice and Development Party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party scuffle during a debate at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara on November 10, 2009.
Turkey's parliament was debating improving Kurdish minority rights, a move that could support Ankara's European Union bid and which the government said would help end a 25-year separatist insurgency.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Lee Yoon-sung, a member of the parliament's committee on foreign affairs and trade and a lawmaker of Korea's ruling Grand National Party, is surrounded by security guards as he passes new bills at the National Assembly main chamber in Seoul on July 22, 2009.
The National Assembly had then approved a set of disputed bills centered on allowing newspapers and conglomerates to own stakes in broadcasting stations, amid a boycott by opposition lawmakers who accused the government of attempting to rein in domestic media organisations, Yonhap reported.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Pro-government deputies of Yulia Tymoshenko's scuffles with opposition members of the Regions party during the last day of the parliament's session in Kiev.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Bolivian opposition Congressman Fernando Rodriguez battles with an unidentified indigenous deputy of President Evo Morales' party during a Congress session in La Paz on April 9, 2009.
Morales had gone on a hunger strike to demand Bolivia's Congress pass an electoral law that could make it easier for him to win control of the legislature before the general election that were held in December that year.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Idris Sami Tandogdu (right) and an unidentified CHP MP (rear right) hit Turkey's ruling Ak Party MP Alim Tunc (second left) as others try to stop the fight during a debate in the Turkish parliament in Ankara May 28, 2007.
Turkish parliament convene to debate the constitutional amendment package regarding general and presidential elections.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Lawmakers from opposition parties remove an Uri Party lawmaker, who backs the then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, from speaker's seat in parliament in Seoul on March 12, 2004.
South Korea's opposition-dominated parliament had passed an unprecedented bill to impeach President Roh for violating election laws. Parliamentary officials said at a rowdy televised session 193 members of the 273-seat National Assembly had voted for the bill to remove the 57-year-old former human rights lawyer from office, more than the two-thirds majority of 181 occupied seats required.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Udeur senator Tommaso Barbato is held while being removed from a confidence vote session at the Senate in Rome on January 24, 2008.
The then Italy prime minister Romano Prodi had made a final plea for the parliament to back his government in a confidence vote he looked set to lose, The economy could not bear more political uncertainty, he had said.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Taiwan legislators treat a colleague who was injured following a fight in parliament in Taipei on May 8, 2007.
In previous sessions legislators have thrown stones and lunchboxes after failing to see eye to eye on certain issues.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
Taiwan legislators treat a colleague who was injured following a fight in parliament in Taipei May 8, 2007.
The wildest Parliament fights of all time
A supporter restrains the then Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto after she lost her temper and pulled the hair of a man and slapped him in a crowd that almost crushed her during a rally on her return from exile in Europe, in Lahore in April 10, 1986.
Bhutto went on to become the country's 11th prime minister. She was assassinated by a suicide bomber on December 27, 2007, plunging the nuclear-armed country into one of the worst crises in its 60-year history.