Parliament proceedings were washed out for the fourth consecutive day on Friday as the Opposition remained unrelenting on its demand for the resignation of Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Lok Sabha
The House was adjourned for the day till Monday, minutes after it assembled this morning.
No business has been transacted since the session began on July 21, witnessing adjournments after adjournments over the opposition uproar.
Even the papers listed for the day were not tabled, as this is scheduled for noon every day. Two bills -- the Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, were also listed for consideration and passage.
As soon as the House met, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced she had disallowed notices of adjournment motion moved by Congress and Left leaders on Lalit Modi controversy, Vyapam scam and other issues.
As soon as she took up the Question Hour, Congress members, wearing black bands on their arms, rushed to the Well shouting slogans and holding placards they have been displaying for the past three days accusing the prime minister of being "voiceless" while scams were taking place in his regime.
TRS members were separately raising the demand for a separate high Court in Telangana.
"You don't want to raise issues... you don't want to take part in the proceedings," the Speaker remarked and adjourned the House for the day within five minutes after it assembled.
Some BJP members rose to object to the Congress members coming into the Well and blocking their view.
The Speaker often continues with the proceedings despite vociferous protests by the Opposition. But this is perhaps for the first time in the recent past that she adjourned the House for the day soon after it met.
Rajya Sabha
Heated exchanges between treasury benches and the Congress were witnessed in the Upper House, forcing adjournment of the Rajya Sabha till noon and then till 2:30 pm as the opposition stuck to its demand for the resignation of Sushma and Raje for allegedly supporting controversial IPL head Lalit Modi.
The BJP and Congress members clashed after Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad blamed the ruling party for being a stumbling block in the functioning of Parliament.
As the treasury benches led by union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal protested and blamed opposition for the stalemate, Congress members too angrily reacted by moving into aisles and shouting slogans.
Sensing trouble, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien adjourned the House.
Earlier, soon after papers were laid on the table, Pramod Tiwari (Cong) rose to say he had given notice under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to discuss alleged corruption in Rajasthan and Swaraj for allegedly trying to help "fugitive" Modi.
He sought to know if the government has decided that both the leaders, who are "in the dock", will resign, provoking the ruling party members who attacked Tiwari and demanded that a discussion be immediately taken up.
Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said it was "unprecedented" that the ruling party on Friday sat on a dharna.
"Ruling party world over have not sat on dharna ... Who are they asking (for help)? Is it the almighty," he said mockingly.
All through, the ruling side continued to shout back at the opposition leaders, prompting Kurien to remark "Why is treasury benches creating problem?"
Following this, Azad said "it is the ruling party which has become stumbling block (in funtioning of House)."
BJP members protested this remark and were promptly countered by the opposition members.
