Opposition parties paralysed Parliament for the second successive day on Thursday, protesting against the refusal of the UPA government to agree for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the issue of nuclear deal with the USA.

The opposition NDA and the Third Front raised slogans and repeatedly rushed into the well of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

This  forced several adjournments of the two Houses.

As a result, the debate  on the controversial agreement, slated in the upper house, was stalled  by the opposition. The Bill to amend the Competition Act, 2002 was  passed without discussion in the lower house amid the din.
In the Rajya Sabha, the discussion on the deal was taken up as listed, but the opposition refused to participate in it, demanding that a debate be taken up through a substantive motion entailing voting.

Interestingly, almost all the senior members of the BJP, AIADMK and SP were among the signatories seeking discussion on the deal.

Trouble in both the houses began as soon as they resumed business on Thursday morning.

Slogan shouting
Nothing could be heard because of the slogan shouting by the opposition.

The two Houses were first adjourned till 12 noon, later to 2 pm and again for the day after lunch break.

‘House incompetence’

At 2 pm, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi read out a ruling of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in Lok Sabha, which stated that the house had “no competence” to scrutinise international agreements.
The minister wondered why the opposition was still insisting on JPC despite observations of the Speaker.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was to reply to a short duration discussion on the flood situation in the country, was not allowed to do so.