There has been outrage in India after television footage showed a member of parliament from hardline Hindu nationalist outfit, Shiv Sena, trying to force-feed a man fasting for Ramadan, according to reports.

The incident took place last week in the capital, New Delhi, when eleven Shiv Sena parliament members confronted catering supervisor, Arshad Zubair, at the new Maharashtra Sadan, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

The MPs were complaining about the quality of food offered at the guest house for officials from the state of Maharashtra, where Shiv Sena is based.

The footage showed MP Rajan Baburao Vichare attempting several times to push the bread into the supervisor's mouth as a crowd gathered.

Vichare said he was not trying to break the supervisor's religious fast. Instead he was trying to demonstrate that the chapatis or piece of bread, being served were too hard.

The catering company's general manager said the supervisor had been "deeply pained and hurt" over the incident as "religious sentiments are attached".

The manager said the MPs had marched into the dining hall last week flanked by television crews and threw kitchen items around.

"They also issued physical threats to the kitchen and service staff while using highly objectionable language," the manager said in an email to a Maharashtra government official, which was obtained by the Indian Express newspaper.

The complaint said the victim was wearing a formal uniform with the name tag at the time of force-feeding; an act caught on camera and circulated widely on social media.

(Aljazeera)