By IANS,
New Delhi : The alleged siphoning of Rs.2,500 crore of public money by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda generated much heat in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday, even triggering an adjournment, but it also revealed the differences in the opposition ranks on the issue.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised the issue for the second time when the house re-assembled for the post-lunch session, with the party’s firebrand S.S. Ahluwalia demanding a “structured” discussion on the money laundering scam.
“The business advisory committee has agreed to a debate on the issue,” Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan pointed out.
“Sir, that is a general debate on corruption. Jharkhand is under president’s rule. This house has a right to discuss the matter,” Ahluwalia contended.
“You can raise the issue when the house discusses the Jharkhand budget,” Khan countered.
Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist then got up to say: “The business advisory committee has recommended a short duration discussion on four scams, among them the one involving Madhu Koda, spectrum allocation and illegal mining in Karnataka.”
In the morning, when the house assembled at 11.15 a.m. after an earlier adjournment, BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu demanded a discussion on the Koda scam.
“This is a very serious burning issue. There is massive fraud in Jharkhand, this requires the attention of the house,” said Naidu.
As Naidu was speaking, Congress members started shouting, creating uproar in the house. Soon, the BJP members approached Chairman Hamid Ansari’s podium raising slogans.
Ansari said: “Members are not honouring agreements reached. I have no option but to adjourn the house till 12 noon.”
His reference was to a meeting of party leaders he had called after the house was adjourned at 11.05 a.m. over demands that the Ranganath Misra Commission report on reservation for Dalit Muslims and Christians be tabled in parliament.