By IANS,
New Delhi: Spiralling prices and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s rejection of a probe into phone tapping and alleged wrongdoings in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) stalled parliament Tuesday, forcing the adjournment of both houses.
While the Lok Sabha was adjourned twice, so was the Rajya Sabha, the second time for the day.
The trouble erupted simultaneously in both houses as they assembled at 11 a.m., with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (Bharatiya Janata Party) lashing out at Manmohan Singh for making a statement outside the house rejecting a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe on phone tapping and IPL.
The prime minister had Monday night told reporters on the sidelines of a defence investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan that the two issues were not fit cases to constitute a JPC.
Swaraj said she was “shocked to see in the newspaper” that the prime minister had rejected the BJP’s demand.
“This is not an ordinary thing. This is an insult to the august house,” she asserted, amid vocal protests by members of the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) over rising prices.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar then adjourned the house till 12 noon as opposition members gathered near her podium, raising slogans against rising prices.
The ruckus continued unabated when the house reassembled and the speaker called on official papers to be laid on the table.
However, this was interrupted as Samajwadi Party and RJD members advanced towards the speaker’s podium, forcing her to adjourn the house till 2 p.m.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha. Failing to restore order, Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the house till 12 noon barely two minutes into the sitting.
Shouting slogans like “Jabse Congress aayee hai, kamar tode mehengai hai (The price rise has been backbreaking ever since the Congress has been in power)”, members of the Samajwadi Party and the RJD kept up their attack on the government when the house reassembled. The Left parties too joined them.
In the midst of this, BJP members led by Najma Heptullah, M. Venkiah Naidu and S.S. Ahluwalia attempted to draw Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan’s attention to what they termed the prime minister’s “impropriety” in rejecting the JPC demand.
Khan then abruptly adjourned the house for the day.