House stalled, George says can I speak?

Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi convened a meeting of Opposition leaders who worked out a three-point formula — this includes making the CVC report available to the PAC — to break the impasse.

The Lok Sabha began on an acrimonious note on Thursday with Congress and Left parties giving adjournment notices on the PAC issue and MPs demanding suspension of Question Hour.

Congress MP Jaipal Reddy said it was for the first time that the PAC had expressed its inability to give its report, leading to a ‘‘constitutional deadlock and a stalemate.’’ He said the PAC was unanimous that the Defence Minister was guilty of privilege breach.

According to Reddy, Parliament was faced with an anomalous situation where the process of law making and government’s accountability had to be taken note of.

Taking strong exception to Reddy’s remarks, BJP’s Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that majority PAC members were of the view that the report was ‘‘forged and incorrect (jaali aur galat).’’ This led to an uproar in the Opposition benches. Congress chief whip Priyaranjan Das Munsi retorted: ‘‘How can a report be jaali? This is an insult to the House.’’ Matters got worse with the ruling benches trying to shout down the Opposition and not letting CPI(M)’s Somnath Chatterjee speak. A visibly upset Das Munsi declared: ‘‘We will not cooperate in any business today and let the country know about it.’’ Fernandes sat through the uproar, listening intently. Speaker Manohar Joshi told members to cool down and let Chatterjee have his say.

The CPI(M) leader, critical of the Government’s ‘‘deliberate obstructive attitude’’ to cripple the functioning of a parliamentary committee, demanded that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee come to the House and clarify. ‘‘An attempt has been made to cover up monumental corruption in Defence deals,’’ Chatterjee said.

Raising slogans, Congress MPs trooped to the well of the House. This saw ruling party MPs also rise, demanding they too be heard on the issue. With matters spinning out of control, the Speaker adjourned the House for 30 minutes and again for 90 minutes.

In the post-lunch session, the din continued but the Government tabled papers in the House, including the quarterly statement on the economy and supplementary demands for grants for 2003-2004 by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh. The bedlam forced Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed to adjourn the House for the day.

The PAC issue echoed in Rajya Sabha too. Opposition members, including Suresh Pachouri (Congress) and Laloo Yadav (RJD), wanted to know why the Government had not provided full information to the PAC on the Kargil arms purchases.