New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI) Trinamool Congress MPs on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha saying they were dissatisfied with the "superficial" reply of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on a debate on the Manipur budget.

In the Upper House, Sitharaman said Manipur had gone through several crises over decades, even under the Congress government.

"For some decades, Manipur has gone through quite a crisis, and every time there is a recovery, it goes back to some other situation, every government has handled it with that sensitivity. There have been situations more in terms of human loss, asset loss..." the finance minister said.

"No one of us will do any help to Manipur by pointing fingers at one another," she said. Sitharaman said some "passionate voices showed as if nothing had ever happened before in the state," adding that there had been a "double-engine" government of Congress earlier as well.

"There cannot be even for a moment a mockery of things when the state is suffering..." she said, drawing an objection from TMC MP Saket Gokhale.

"I will not get distracted by the TMC," she said, adding that the TMC was "shouting down ministers." TMC MPs protested against the remark and staged a walkout.

Talking to the media outside Parliament, its MP Sushmita Dev condemned Sitharaman's remarks in the debate as a "superficial reply".

"Honourable finance minister in her reply on Manipur budget gave an eyewash answer. For 22 months, Manipur has been burning, but the government of India, Home Minister, Prime Minister, took no concrete steps to stop the mayhem," said Dev.

"To add to that, the Manipur tapes, where it is almost proved by truth labs that it is the former chief minister Biren Singh's voice which says the violence was intentionally created, that means it was state-sponsored," she said.

Dev alleged that Sitharaman targeted TMC as the party asked "difficult questions." "We walked out in protest because we don't want to listen to a superficial reply about a run-of-the-mill budget, while the people of Manipur need a package, a healing touch, and an elected government. We condemn the statement of the finance minister in the Rajya Sabha," she said.

Parliament on Tuesday approved the supplementary demands for grants, which entails Rs 51,463 crore additional spending in the current fiscal and the Manipur Budget for 2025-26 with the Rajya Sabha returning four bills to the Lok Sabha.

Parliament also approved the Rs 1,291 crore demands for excess grants for 2021-22 fiscal and the Rs 1,861 crore supplementary demands for grants for Manipur in 2024-25. PTI AO AO VN VN

Parliamentary conduct dispute as MPs walk out over finance minister's reply during Manipur budget debate, raising accountability concerns. TMC MPs staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha protesting the Union Finance Minister's reply to the Manipur budget debate as superficial and inadequate to address prolonged unrest; they alleged central inaction and cited purported audio evidence of deliberate instigation. Parliament nonetheless approved supplementary and excess demands for grants, returned four bills to the Lok Sabha, and passed the Manipur budget for the upcoming year, juxtaposing formal budgetary approvals with ongoing political dispute over ministerial accountability and parliamentary conduct.