NEW DELHI, 6 July 2004 — Bharatiya Janata Party members ignored appeals by the prime minister and the speaker of the Lok Sabha and forced the adjournment of both houses of Parliament hours after the budget session opened yesterday.
As soon as new members had taken oath — one in the Lok Sabha and 51 in the Rajya Sabha — opposition members led by the BJP were on their feet. Shouting slogans, “Daagi mantri hatao, desh bachao” (Remove tainted members, save the country,” they stormed the well.
At least six ministers in the new government face charges of bribery or other criminal offenses. The government says they are innocent until proven guilty. Cases against the ministers are being heard in different courts, but judgments and appeals could take years in India’s slow-moving judicial system.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who failed in discussions with government and opposition politicians on Sunday to ensure peace in the house, adjourned the legislature for an hour after the ruckus. When the house resumed and there was no letup in the opposition protests, Somnath adjourned the house for the day.
The Rajya Sabha, or upper house, was also adjourned for the day after identical unruly scenes.
The new session is crucial because the government plans to unveil its budget on Thursday.
Parliament held a brief session last month so that Manmohan Singh’s coalition government could prove it had the support of a majority of legislators after his Congress party won in April-May elections. Congress defeated former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. The opposition disrupted that session too, preventing any debate on the new government’s policies.
Opposition lawmakers are also angry at Manmohan for dismissing four state governors appointed by the previous government and a BJP MP challenged the decision’s constitutionality in the Supreme Court yesterday.
Manmohan’s government did not provide a reason for dismissing the governors from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa. Critics claim it was because of their past affiliation with the BJP.
The governors are ceremonial heads of states appointed by the Indian president on the advice of the government. They serve as eyes and ears for the government in Delhi.
Manmohan said Sunday he had spoken to BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani and urged him not to disrupt proceedings in Parliament. “I appealed to him that regardless of our differences Parliament should be allowed to function,” Manmohan said.
But a spokesman for the opposition party said its lawmakers would disrupt proceedings and threatened protests outside Parliament.
“The BJP will launch a nationwide agitation against the undemocratic and rigid policies of the Congress government,” spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
During the brief period when the houses functioned, the new members were administered their oaths of office. Prominent among those who took oaths in the Rajya Sabha were Home Minister Shivraj Patil, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu, former deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptulla, NCP leader Tariq Anwar, industrialist Anil Ambani, BSP chief Mayawati, film star Jaya Bachchan; BJP leaders Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Pramod Mahajan and Arun Shourie; and Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Oscar Fernandes and Mohsina Kidwai.
One of India’s wealthiest men, Ambani ran many rounds between the War Memorial at India Gate to Parliament and back before attending his first session. “I do it (run) in Bombay, I will do it in Delhi — I have a six-year term,” Ambani, his running gear drenched in perspiration, told reporters outside Parliament.
