Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS) Two days after the Lokpal bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha, it failed to get past the Rajya Sabha Thursday as the house was adjourned sine die at midnight amid chaotic scenes.

A distraught Chairman Hamid Ansari made the dramatic announcement even as the opposition and treasury benches were screaming at one another, capping a day-long animated and at times stormy debate on the Lokpal bill.

As Ansari began addressing members just after midnight, opposition MPs, sensing he might adjourn the house without taking a vote on the bill they were sure the government would lose, tried to shout him down.

“An unprecedented situation has arisen. There appears to be a desire to outshout each other,” he said, triggering more din. This led him to plead with the MPs: “Let me finish, let me finish, let me…”

“There is a total impasse… The house cannot be conducted in the noise. It requires orderly proceedings. I am afraid the chair has no option, most reluctantly … please … I am afraid you can shout…

“What ruling can I give in this noise? I am afraid I can’t do anything if this is how Rajya Sabha is going to behave, then all of us can go home.”

He then ordered the national song to be played, marking the abrupt closure of the extended winter session and leaving the government and opposition members at each other’s throats.

The final hour of the proceedings was marked by uproar when an aggressive Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy came up against opposition MPs shouting to know from Ansari how long the debate would go on.

Suddenly, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Rajniti Prasad barged towards the minister, snatched a copy of the Lokpal bill and tore it up.

An exasperated Ansari first adjourned the house for 15 minutes.

But when the Rajya Sabha met again, disorder continued. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said it was impossible to immediately take up the 187 amendments proposed by the opposition to the Lokpal bill.

“All these amendments require time to respond and the government has to respond. We have to consider the amendments,” he said, while insisting that the Congress-led government was committed to fight corruption.

Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury demanded to know how much time the government needed to tackle the amendments.

Bansal avoided a direct reply. And in the most clear signal that the government did not want the session to continue, he said that it was the government’s prerogative to decide when the house can meet again.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley, who had kickstarted the debate Thursday morning, then alleged that the “government is running away from this house because it is in a hopeless minority”.

This triggered high-pitched shouting from Congress MPs, who said they were ready to pass the Lokpal bill in the shape it sailed through the Lok Sabha two days ago — minus the amendments.

Jaitley refused to give up: “A government which did not have the numbers in the house has consciously choreographed the entire debate in such a manner that it cannot be concluded today.

“Any government which is running away from parliament does not have the right to govern the country,” he added, triggering more shouting and counter-shouting and charges and counter-charges.