Ruckus in Houses over price rise

BJP slams PM for showing disrespect to LS

Even as the MPs of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the leftist parties protested against rising prices, the Leader of Opposition in the LS and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj accused the Prime Minister of showing disrespect to the House.
Soon after the House began its business for the day by condoling the recent deaths of two former MPs,  Swaraj and some other BJP MPs were up in arms over the remarks made by the PM during an interaction with the mediapersons on Monday.

The media reports quoted the PM stating that there would be no JPC to probe either the IPL controversy or the alleged phone-tapping. She questioned how the PM could give a statement outside when the LS was in session, particularly when the demand for the JPCs had been raised by the Opposition in the House itself.

“This is a disrespect of the House. The PM should give a statement in the House,” she said even as the SP, RJD and leftist MPs started slogans criticising the UPA government for soaring prices. The nationwide shutdown called for by the group of 13 opposition parties to protest against rising prices also cast its shadow over the LS, with the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad leading the Opposition MPs to the well of the House and shouting slogans against the government. 

As the Question Hour was disrupted by the protesting MPs, Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House. But pandemonium continued even after the House re-assembled at 12:00 pm with the SP and RJD MPs trooping to the well and shouting slogans like “whenever the Congress has come to power; it has brought back-breaking inflation with it” and “a government that has failed to bring down the prices must go”.

In the Rajya Sabha, the AIADMK MPs too joined the leftists, SP and RJD to slam the government on the issue of price rise, while the BJP attacked the PM’s statement.