By IANS
New Delhi : Both houses of parliament were adjourned repeatedly Wednesday over opposition demands for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to study the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, saying the nuclear issue was “no family affair” of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left.
The reference was to an UPA-Left panel the government has announced to study the implications of the nuclear deal on India’s strategic interests following strong condemnation of the agreement by the communists.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 3 p.m. Wednesday. An exasperated Speaker Somnath Chatterjee initially adjourned it for half hour till 11.30 a.m. after opposition MPs disrupted question hour.
He then adjourned the house till 3 p.m. when the trouble persisted.
The UPA government had Tuesday announced a 15-member panel under External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to examine all aspects of the India-US nuclear deal.
Its other members from the Congress are Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan.
UPA partners DMK, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nationalist Congress Party have one nominee each.
Also on the panel will be Left leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yehcury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja of the Communist Party of India, Debabrata Biswas of Forward Bloc and T.J. Chandrachoodan of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
The situation was no different in the Rajya Sabha.
As soon as the house commenced Question Hour, after a gap of four days, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members supported vocally by the members of AIADMK were on their feet shouting: “We want JPC! JPC lao, desh bachao!”
MPs from the Shiv Sena, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Samajawadi Party and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also joined the protest but only BJP and AIADMK members walked towards the chairman’s chair.
Unmindful of their slogan shouting, chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari started the question hHour and carried on the exercise for a considerable amount of time. Ultimately, however, he had to adjourn the house at 11.50 a.m., 10 minutes before the question hour ended.
The house again met with Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan in the chair. But a normally persuasive and effective Khan failed to bring peace, and adjourned the house within 10 minutes till after lunch.
The BJP and AIADMK have in particular taken umbrage to the Left-UPA joint mechanism. One of their MPs said: “This is no family affairs (of the UPA-Left). This concerns the whole nation.”
Earlier in the day, the Lok Sabha speaker congratulated scientists on the successful takeoff of the satellite launch vehicle GSLV FO4 and greeted teachers across the country on the occasion of Teacher’s Day.