NEW DELH, 25 April 2008 — Opposition lawmakers belonging to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) disrupted proceedings in both houses of Parliament yesterday over inflation. Shouting slogans against rising prices, they marched into the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at 11:55 a.m. While Sushma Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led the group in the Rajya Sabha, her party colleague Vijay Kumar Malhotra led the protests in the Lok Sabha.
In both houses, the legislators gathered near the chair’s podium and shouted slogans, “UPA sarkar hai hai” (UPA government, Down! Down!), “Mahngai ko rok na paaye wo sarkar nikkammi hai” (the government that cannot control prices is worthless).
As the din continued in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee ordered laying of the papers listed for the day. He later adjourned the house after strongly condemning the members for disturbing the proceedings.
“It is very, very unfair that despite giving opportunities to raise all issues, the proceedings are being deliberately interfered,” Chatterjee said.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha, where NDA legislators shouted slogans targeting the prime minister and the United Progressive Alliance government. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was present in the house. BJP president Rajnath Singh asked his colleagues to refrain from shouting slogans against Singh.
Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the house when it became impossible to conduct business.
Earlier, NDA members carrying banners against rising prices formed a human chain on Parliament premises. The NDA members who participated in the demonstration numbered around 130 and included those belonging to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Shiv Sena. “If you can’t stop price rise then you should quit and the country should go to polls,” BJP’s Lal Krishna Advani said. The opposition was “ready” for the challenge, he said.
Advani slammed leftist parties, who support the government from outside, and described the ruling coalition as an “opportunistic get-together” to keep the NDA out. The coalition was “helpless” as its two major allies have diametrically opposite economic and foreign policies, Advani said. The BJP-ruled states would take effective steps to ensure the availability of food grains at reasonable rates for the poor, Advani told reporters. “They (UPA) should either govern well or get out,” senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said.
Despite India having an “economist prime minister” and an “astute” finance minister, prices have risen due to “non-governance” and gross mismanagement of the economy by the UPA government, a BJP leader said.
The UPA, however, has blamed states for not taking effective anti-hoarding measures. With the price rise being a global phenomenon, the situation is much better in India in comparison to other Asian nations, the UPA claims.
Dismissing the NDA’s protest as an electoral-gimmick, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said: “What NDA is doing is all eyewash as the elections are approaching. The states where the BJP is in power have failed to bring down prices and are not cooperating with the federal government. The traders who support BJP are indulging in the hoarding of essential commodities and have established cartels.”
