NEW DELHI, 16 April — The Parliament turned bedlam yesterday as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government rejected the opposition’s demand to sack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over sectarian violence.

Resuming after a three-week recess, both houses of Parliament were subjected to loud protests by opposition MPs who refused to allow the proceedings to continue unless their demand for a discussion on Modi’s role in the Gujarat violence was taken up.

“Modi is guilty and should be removed,” some of them screamed. Others shouted, “Modi hatao, desh bachao” (Remove Modi, save the nation).

Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed adjourned the Lok Sabha minutes after opposition MPs left their seats and raised slogans, refusing to accept his plea to take up the matter later.

When similar scenes prevailed as the house reassembled in the afternoon, Sayeed adjourned it until today.

Chairman Krishan Kant adjourned the Rajya Sabha for the day minutes after it met in the morning, as opposition MPs demanded that Modi be sacked for failing to contain the violence in which over 900 have died since February-end.

Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now finds itself deadlocked over the opposition’s demand for a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Gujarat situation.

The opposition wants the debate held under a rule that mandates a vote at the end. But the government said it would like to conduct the debate without a ballot. The opposition said the government was avoiding a vote as it was not sure of support from its allies, three of whom too have demanded Modi’s ouster.

“As most parties are opposed to the blatantly communal agenda of the BJP and its rabid pro-Hindu affiliates, the government does not want a vote on the issue,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) veteran Somnath Chatterjee said.

But BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra said: “The Lok Sabha has already thrice discussed the violence. The opposition wants Modi’s ouster (but) how can Parliament vote on sacking a chief minister? That is the prerogative of the state legislators.”

The Vajpayee government is rattled by the continued insistence of its key ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 28 MPs and is the biggest group propping it, that the Gujarat issue is not a state matter, contrary to what the BJP says.

At a press conference in Hyderabad yesterday, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu again pressed for Modi’s removal.

But instead of pulling up Modi, the BJP over the weekend gave him a clean chit and authorized him to call fresh elections, prompting charges that it was looking for an electoral victory taking advantage of a communal divide in Gujarat.

Naidu has vociferously opposed that plan. His party boycotted a meeting of the coalition here Sunday after Vajpayee and the BJP rejected calls to sack Modi.

The departure of 43 MPs of the TDP, the Trinamool Congress and the Lok Janshakti Party, which too have demanded Modi’s dismissal, would not hurt Vajpayee’s majority as the 275-odd MPs in the 545-seat Lok Sabha would still support him.

But the cracks in the coalition would mean the hold of both Vajpayee and the BJP over the allies is weakening.

Also worrying for the government is the fact that opposition parties have closed ranks like never before in Vajpayee’s four-year rule to attack it jointly.

For the first time, main opposition Congress party President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav and leaders from the CPM and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), among others. Mulayam said: “The opposition parties are totally united. Vajpayee’s secular allies should quit supporting his fascist party.”