New Delhi: Both houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day on Thursday after the NDA and Third Front continued their noisy protest for a joint parliamentary study of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Opposition MPs shouted slogans and came into the well of the House in Lok Sabha. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the House within five minutes during the question hour to meet again at 1200 hrs IST.
The House was adjourned again till 1400 hrs IST and when it re-assembled the Opposition again demanded that the Government constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study the nuclear deal. The Government has formed a 15-member panel comprising leaders of UPA and Left parties and rejected the Opposition’s demand.
Janata Dal (United) MP Prabunath Singh said the UPA must not restrict a discussion on the nuclear deal with the Left parties alone.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi categorically rejected the demand for a JPC, while pointing out that international treaties could not be subjected to scrutiny by Parliament.
Amid the din created by an adamant opposition, Deputy Speaker Charnjit Singh Atwal, who was in chair, adjourned the house for the day.
The Government managed to get two bills passed despite the din - the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Amendment Bill 2007 and the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2007 which makes it mandatory for companies that undertake mergers and acquisitions in India and overseas to inform the competition committee. The government also tabled the papers listed in Thursday's business.
In the Rajya Sabha, the much-awaited debate on the 123 agreement between India and United States was stalled for the same reason, with the opposition demanding a JPC to examine the deal.
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The Rajya Sabha agenda papers for Thursday listed the names of 40 members of the house, including leaders like Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie who are leading the BJP charge on the nuclear deal, as also Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Jaswant Singh, Telugu Desam Party member Lal Jan Basha, Samajwadi Party member Shahid Siddiqui and members of the Left as well as Congress and those demanding the "short duration discussion".
Listing the names it said, "to raise a discussion on the situation arising out of the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement".
But the moment the house met, the BJP and AIADMK members walked towards the speaker's podium raising slogans and in a short while the chairman adjourned it till 12 noon. At noon, the house met again and before Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan could even sit down, the opposition thronged into the podium, raising slogans like, "We want JPC, JPC lao desh bachao (form the JPC to save the country) and "Congress ne kya kiya, desh ko bech diya" (What did the Congress do, sold off the nation).
Khan persisted with the business of laying the day's papers despite the din. But finally around 12.15 p.m., he adjourned the upper house for the post-lunch session and later for the day.
(With IANS)
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