Oppn rocks House over Mamata rally

BJP asks UPA govt to clarify its stand over Maoist issue

While the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday witnessed a brief adjournment and a walk out by the BJP members, there was a war of words between the two sides in the Lower House.
The Upper House was adjourned immediately after it was convened in the morning as the BJP members insisted that the issue should be taken up instead of the Question Hour.
When the House was reconvened at noon, the Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley raised the issue and demanded prime minister’s explanation on his government’s policy on the naxals. He demanded that the UPA government clarify its stand on the issue as its own minister has contradicted the official stand on what the prime minister had termed the “biggest national threat.”

“The PM must explain as to how a Union minister can contradict government’s stand,” Jaitely said. When Trinamool member and Union Minister Dinesh Trivedi tried to intervene saying that the rally was against violence, Jaitley asked him, “Are you intervening as a minister in the UPA government or a member of a political party?”

The slogan-shouting BJP members did not relent even when Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the government would get back to the House after ascertaining the facts about the Lalgarh rally. They staged a walk out, albeit for five minutes. They returned to move a calling attention motion on rotting of food grain.

In the Lok Sabha, there were heated exchanges between the BJP and Left members on one side and Trinamool Congress members on the other on the issue when Deputy Leader of Opposition Gopinath Munde of the BJP sought to speak on it during the Question Hour.