Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Angry opposition members forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha on the first day of the month-long budget session Thursday with their protests over the hike in petrol and diesel prices overshadowing the presentation of the Economic Survey.
Members shouted slogans demanding immediate withdrawal of the hike and called it parliamentary impropriety that it was announced just on the eve of the budget session without the sanction of the cabinet.

Minutes after the house assembled, almost all the opposition members led by the Left parties were on their feet, demanding that the increase in petrol and diesel prices be rolled back immediately.

The government had Wednesday announced a hike of Rs.4 per litre on petrol and Rs.2 on diesel prices.

Speaker Meira Kumar granted a discussion on the issue after two adjournments and later Petroleum Minister Murli Deora assured a reduction when the global crude rates fell, but the opposition MPs were not satisfied.

When they reassembled after a break, members of the Left parties and Samajwadi Party gathered near the speaker’s podium and raised anti-government slogans. All attempts by Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, who was chairing the session, to cool tempers did not help.

MPs of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and even DMK, which is Congress’ partner in the government, were on their feet demanding that the hike be withdrawn.

Barely five minutes later, the deputy speaker adjourned the house for the day.

BJP’s deputy leader in the house Sushma Swaraj questioned the government’s motive in increasing the prices “in such a hush-hush manner”.

“Who is the government helping by this decision in such a hush-hush manner? The (oil sector) public sector undertakings are not running at a loss, they are in profit,” she said.

Swaraj said announcing the hike on the eve of the budget session “violated the principle of parliamentary propriety. The government was well aware that parliament starts today, but it made the announcement outside”.

The Congress’ partners in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) registered their protest.

T.R. Baalu of the DMK said: “I strongly condemn the decision… It is not a unitary Congress government; it is of the Congress, of the DMK, of the Trinamool.”

Though a little muted, the Trinamool Congress said it was against the hike.

Its leader Sudip Bandyopadhya said: “We are not actually happy with the hike.”

He demanded that an “assurance be given to the house that the prices will be reduced once international crude prices fall”.

Expressing his “outrage”, Gurudas Dasgupta of the Communist Party of India said: “It is grave anti-people decision, grave unparliamentary move, just a few hours before the parliament was to meet. We demand an unqualified apology to parliament and withdrawal of the price rise.”

Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Basudeb Acharia made similar demands.

Lalu Prasad of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party also protested against the government decision.

The chief business of the session Thursday was the presentation of the Economic Survey, tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Explaining the government’s stance on the hike, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora read out a statement explaining the circumstances for it and gave an assurance that the “government will respond suitably if there is a fall in the crude oil prices”.

He held that the hike was minimal, compared to the required increase.