New Delhi, Dec 8: Pandemonium continued to prevail in Parliament on Wednesday with a vociferous opposition disallowing normal business — prompting veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani to describe the prevailing situation as disgraceful and question the manner in which the proceedings were sought to be conducted.
The Lok Sabha witnessed protests over demonetisation with the opposition insisting on a debate under a rule entailing voting but the house, nevertheless, managed to take up Question Hour and Zero Hour. However, the Rajya Sabha could not conduct any business due to the prevailing chaos and logjam.
Both the houses were adjourned for the day in the afternoon following repeated adjournments.
In the Lok Sabha, the opposition kept raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and created a ruckus. Amid the din, however, the Question Hour went on for around half hour and all Zero Hour submissions were made.
The house was adjourned for the day, minutes after it met at 2 p.m.
Earlier as the house was adjourned shortly before 1 p.m., Advani described the unending disruption of the Lok Sabha as "disgraceful" and wanted to know who was running the house.
The normally quiet Advani called Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar and asked who exactly was in charge in the house.
As other BJP members watched in silence, the former Deputy Prime Minister and one of the most respected parliamentarians in the country, was overheard saying that neither Speaker Sumitra Mahajan nor the Parliamentary Affairs Minister appeared to be on top of the situation.
"Neither the Speaker nor the Parliamentary Affairs Minister is running the house. I am going to tell the Speaker that she is not running the house… Both the opposition and the government are unable to run the house," said Advani even as Ananth Kumar was seen desperately trying to pacify him.
Ananth Kumar was then seen gesturing towards the media gallery at which Advani said: "I will say it publicly."
He asked till what time the Lok Sabha had been adjourned. When he was told it was till 2 p.m., the veteran asked sarcastically: "Why not sine die?"
Soon after the lower house met at 11 a.m., opposition members were on their feet demanding a debate under Rule 184 that entails voting.
A debate on the issue, however, had begun on Monday under Rule 193, which governs short duration discussion, after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan allowed notices by Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab and Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader A.P. Jithender Reddy.
The Speaker even dubbed the opposition protest a drama.
"This is an every day drama. If you want to debate, you can start the debate right now," she said.
However, even as the opposition members shouted slogans like "Modi sarkar hai hai", Mahajan continued with the Zero Hour submissions while the protests kept getting noisier.
The house was adjourned shortly before 1 p.m. until 2 p.m.
When the house met at 2 p.m., opposition members again raised slogans demanding discussion with voting. Amid the unending din, the house was adjourned for the day.
