All the MPs got to hear: ‘Adjourned’

Around 11.43 am, Parliament’s security chief Kawaljit Deol got an alert from New Delhi District Police. He then passed on the ‘‘worrisome’’ message to the Secretaries General of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Minister of State for Company Affairs Prem Kumar Gupta was in the midst of replying to Starred Question 346 of Abdulla Kutty and Bapu Hari Chaure when Speaker Somnath Chatterjee called Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and quietly asked him to get the House evacuated.

However, to avoid creating panic, he ‘‘very consciously’’ did not mention security concerns while adjourning the House as there were nearly 2,500 people present in Parliament House at the time of Question Hour.

After adjourning the House, the Speaker himself walked to the Parliament Library and for the next 45 minutes, monitored the evacuation of the House.

Later, at a review meeting of Parliament’s security called by the Speaker and attended by Secretary General and the security officials, it was decided that security at the entry and exit points of the Parliament complex will be tightened.

‘‘The Speaker asked the security to be proactive and very alert,’’ officials said following the meeting. They also added that thanks to regular security drills, everything was ship-shape.

‘‘Though the dog squad was immediately called, we were quite certain that no dangerous object could have gone in unnoticed, escaping the closed-circuit cameras. But the rulebook says ‘Don’t take warnings lightly’, and we didn’t,’’ a senior official added.

A calm walkout

The question hour in the Rajya Sabha was just about to end. It was past 11.50 am. Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan was in the chair and Ram Vilas Paswan was answering questions when Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat made a sudden entry and took the chair. ‘‘The house is being adjourned till 1 pm,’’ he announced.

Bewildered MPs asked each other what was happening. Nobody had a clue. But everyone knew it had to do with some security concerns. There was no panic, and everyone walked out of the House calmly.

Paswan and Najma Heptulla walked out of the building and were waiting for the car when the security staff requested everyone to go back inside the building. Within five minutes, the instructions were again to vacate the building. Then the alarms went off.

By 1.15, Home Minister Shivraj Patil gave the first official version. ‘‘The search of the building is complete and nothing was found.’’ At 3 pm, Rajya Sabha reconvened. Shekhawat began on a lighter note. ‘‘There is a good number of members present. That doesn’t mean those absent are less courageous,’’ he smiled. Varghese George