Major opposition parties on Thursday staged a sit-in inside the Parliament House complex to observe the tenth year of the Babri Masjid demolition.
They also sought the "ouster" of those responsible for it from the government.
Legislators belonging to the Congress party, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and four Left parties staged the hour-long 'dharna' near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, denouncing the BJP and the Sangh Parivar outfits for creating communal tension.
Observing the day as that of "national solidarity" and pledging to maintain and strengthen amity and harmony among the people, they resolved to fight "deliberate attempts" by these forces to divide the country on communal lines.
Among those present were former prime minister H D Deve Gowda [Janata Dal-Secular], Shivraj Patil and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi [both Congress], Somnath Chatterjee, Basudeb Acharya and Hannan Mollah [all Communist Party of India-Marxist], Ramjilal Suman [Samajwadi Party], Ramvilas Paswan [Lok Janshakti], Raghuvansh Prasad Singh [Rashtriya Janata Dal] and Abani Roy [Revolutionary Socialist Party].
In Lok Sahha, agitated Samajwadi Party members stormed the well in Lok Sabha disrupting the Question Hour for nearly 15 minutes.
As soon as the House assembled, SP members trooped into the well on the issue. Many ruling BJP members also surged forward taking strong exception to their action stalling the proceedings amid repeated appeals by Speaker Manohar Joshi to restore normalcy.
SP members were, however, persuaded by their senior party colleague Ramjilal Suman to resume their seats after a few minutes. BJP chief whip Vijay Kumar Malhotra strongly opposed disruption of the Question Hour and suggested that the matter could be either fully discussed during Zero Hour or it should be skipped. "There is no justification for wasting the precious time of the House," he said.
Congress chief whip P R Dasmunsi said the opposition had no intention to stall the proceedings, but only wanted to raise the matter.
CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee said they had raised the matter for national unity and solidarity.
More from rediff