It was an inauspicious start to the railway budget presentation in parliament on Thursday morning. Led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi the opposition parties stalled parliamentary business over Venkaiah Naidu’s remarks. The senior minister’s comments against her son  Rahul, who has taken a "leave of absence" for a part of this parliamentary session to "introspect", has not been appreciated.

"Self-introspect if you can do it here and if you can't, then go somewhere far and do it,"  Naidu, who is the parliamentary affairs minister, said on Wednesday during a discussion in the Lok Sabha.

In Parliament, a united opposition raised slogans and demanded that Naidu withdraw his remarks. The protests forced an adjournment in the Lok Sabha.

Naidu told Congress leaders on Thursday that he "didn't intend to hurt their feelings" and asked them to bury the "misunderstanding."

The opposition, which has been cornering the ruling NDA government on the contentious land ordinance issue, on Thursday said that it will not let Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu table his Budget in Parliament until Naidu apologises for his remarks. Later, they seemed to relented to allow rail budget presentation.

The united opposition met on Thursday and said it will not let Lok Sabha run until Naidu apologises for his "insulting statements" made during the land ordinance debate on Wednesday. They have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking apology from Naidu for his statement.

Naidu had taken an apparent dig at Rahul Gandhi's leave to introspect, saying if the Congress can't do it here, it should "go somewhere far" to do it. "We need to examine why after winning in seven states we lost in Delhi...You (Congress) have been reduced to zero," Naidu said amid a massive protest from the opposition benches.

"The minister has every right to explain his position but does not have a right to insult others. We will not tolerate your insult," Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge