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Parliament adjourned sine die

In the Lok Sabha, Speaker G M C Balayogi, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi regretted that the atmosphere in the House had been vitiated by angry exchanges and use of unparliamentary words.

The business of the House, which had started its session on February 18, was generally disrupted after the tehelka.com revelations of March 13, showing the alleged involvement of politicians, bureaucrats and defence officers in shady defence deals.

The acrimony persisted even after the House met on April 16 after a three-week recess.

Earlier, members belonging to the Congress staged a walkout soon after question hour, when the government rejected any Joint Parliamentary Commission probe into the tehelka.com revelations without a proper discussion.

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan conceded that the government had an open mind on the issue, but said this could only be decided after a proper discussion and after the Opposition brought a motion to that effect. He said it was not possible for the government to set up a JPC merely on mentions made during zero hour.

After the walkout by the Congress, members belonging to the Left, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal came into the well and shouted slogans for some time, before being persuaded by Balayogi to resume their seats.

Raising the issue soon after Question Hour, Congress member Madhavrao Scindia said corruption in defence matters was totally unacceptable. He said that parallel inquiry committees had worked in the case of the Ayodhya and Rajiv Gandhi assassination issues even as the matter was in court. Therefore, it was not proper to say that a JPC could not be constituted while the Venkatswami commission was probing the issue.

He said the Congress had behaved as a responsible Opposition and helped the government clear financial business but regretted the speaker's decision to adjourn the House sine die without a discussion on the issue, and said the Congress would raise this inside and outside the House.

Rashtriya Janata Dal member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said he wanted to raise an adjournment motion on the issue, and charged the government with avoiding a JPC as it was involved in the scam.

Vajpayee blamed the Opposition for unruly behaviour and said it was not proper for the Parliament of the world's largest democracy that members not only resorted to strong words but almost came to blows.

He said decisions in a democracy were taken by a majority and consensus and not by preventing Parliament from functioning.

The prime minister said the government had taken a serious note of the tehehka.com revelations and was acting with great urgency in the matter. The government was ready for a discussion, but for it a proper atmosphere should be created.

He, therefore, wrote to Sonia Gandhi and an understanding was reached with the help of the Speaker to conduct the budgetary business smoothly, Vajpayee said.

But it was not proper that the Speaker should become involved in disputes between parties, he added, expressing the hope that this would not happen again.

The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned sine die ahead of schedule to enable members to participate in the state assembly elections in May.

The Budget session of the House had commenced on February 19. It had 31 sittings in 90 hours, witnessing tumultuous scenes over the tehelka.com expose and the Balco sell-off, resulting in a loss of 58 hours, Chairman Krishan Kant observed in his concluding remarks.

Hesaid that it was for the first time that the general Budget was presented at mid-day instead of its conventional time of 1700 hours.

There were 63 special mentions and 70 starred questions orally answered. The House also felicitated Deputy Chairman Najma Heptullah for getting the highest civilian award from the Moroccan government.

Before the House was adjourned, glowing tributes were paid to eight of its members, including Leader of the Opposition Dr Manmohan Singh, who will retire in June-July.

The Complete Coverage: The Great Defence Scandal

UNI

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