NRC row: Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday was adjourned for a day following an uproar by the Opposition, mainly Congress and Trinamool Congress over publication of Assam's National Register of Citizens.

Soon after the House reconvened at 2 pm, members from the Trinamool Congress rushed to the Well of the house and objected to Home Minister Rajnath Singh giving a reply on NRC.

Chairman Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the house till 11 am on Thursday. Naidu, while pleading for calm said, this is “unbecoming of Parliament members.”

The House earlier witnessed adjournment till noon. Soon after scheduled papers were laid on the table of the House in the morning, senior Congress MP Anand Sharma raised a point of order and insisted on removal of certain comments made by BJP MP Amit Shah on Tuesday in the Upper House.

Several other Congress members were up on their feet to support Sharma.

The leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad too said that the record of proceedings of the House must be looked into.

Sharma said Shah, during his speech on the NRC debate, had termed all prime ministers in office after late Rajiv Gandhi as "buzdil' (cowards).

In an apparent jibe on the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, he said one of the prime ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee belonged to the BJP.

Chairman Naidu assured Sharma that he would go through the records and called Shah to resume his statement, which he could not complete on Tuesday as the House was adjourned midway due to the uproar.

As Shah rose to continue his statement, there were protests from the Congress and some other opposition MPs too joined them.

Naidu said it seems some members are "not interested" in the discussion and warned Sharma that he would be named.

The Congress MP said he would go out of the House. To this, Naidu said, "You go".

However, Sharma stood up only to retake his seat.

As some opposition members were still on their feet, Naidu adjourned the House till Noon.

A controversy has erupted after the publication of the Assam National Register of Citizen (NRC) wherein names about 40 lakh people have been excluded.