Denied debate on scheme renaming row,BJP stages walkout

The BJP then tabled an adjournment motion demanding a discussion on the tapping issue even as the Speaker appealed to the Opposition to cooperate during House proceedings. He,however,ruled that the issue could not be debated. “ In view of the chief minister’s statement on the government’s inability,under the Indian Telegraph Act,to disclose details,no debate can be allowed in the House,” Speaker Bihari said.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh then reminded the House of the relevant provisions in the Telegraph Act that prevented the government from disclosing details. “In the present case,no information can be revealed unless the inquiry is complete,” he added.

Former health minister Rajeev Bindal then waded in and pointed out that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had already named Dhumal and two IPS officers as being behind the alleged eavesdropping. “Our only demand is for the government to order a probe by a High Court judge and till then prevent anyone from making statements within or outside the House,” Bindal added. Just as the tapping issue was dying out,Suresh Bhardwaj,the BJP’s chief whip,urged the Speaker to get the government to accept a debate on the other adjournment motion regarding the government changing the nomenclature of schemes that had been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

While the Speaker assured the Opposition that the issue would be discussed,he refused to fix a time. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri intervened but also gave no hint of when the issue would be debated.