AFP/New Delhi

India’s normally disruptive parliament was yesterday widely derided as having hit a new low after lawmakers fought, broke equipment and pepper-sprayed the chamber over a bill to create a new state.

The media condemned the lawmakers’ behaviour as “revolting” and a “disgrace to democracy” after mayhem erupted on Thursday over the bill to carve a new state out of existing Andhra Pradesh.

“Pepper spray in House leaves Indian democracy in tears” screamed the Times of India front page headline yesterday, while the Hindustan Times called the chaos “a complete breakdown of parliamentary conduct”.

“Even for a country with a long and unedifying history of parliamentary pandemonium, nothing can be as shameful and disgraceful as the use of pepper spray by a member on his peers to disrupt proceedings,” the Hindu newspaper said in an editorial.

The unrest broke out after the Congress-led government introduced the contentious bill to create Telangana state into the lower house of parliament.

Small fights and scuffles ensued between lawmakers opposed to the bill and those trying to stop the chaos and restore calm.

In the confusion, a glass table was reportedly smashed and one MP was accused of brandishing a knife, a claim he later denied.

MPs tried to tear out the speaker’s microphone, while others ripped up official papers, before one lawmaker unleashed a can of pepper spray, later claiming that he had come under attack from colleagues.

TV footage showed MPs coughing and covering their mouths and heading for the exit, as others clambered into ambulances waiting outside.

Some 17 MPs were suspended as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath called for the strongest possible action against those responsible.

The disruptions come as the government attempts to pass major bills in the last session of a parliament, which was set even before Thursday’s chaos to go down as the least productive in history.