The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the second day on Friday, amidst uproarious scenes as the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party persisted with its demand for resignation of Natwar Singh from the Cabinet and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the Volcker issue.
The House adjourned for the day within minutes of reassembling at noon after a nearly hour-long suspension as slogan-shouting BJP members were pressing their demand, disrupting the entire question hour.
Amidst the din, senior BJP member S S Ahluwalia also raised the issue of former US envoy Daniel Patrick Moynihan's book on payoffs to Congress and Mitrokhin Archives, alleging that some Indian political parties were on the pay rolls of KGB. He also demanded a CBI probe into the payoffs.
In the melee, the government laid the listed papers on the table of the House.
The Manipur University Bill 2005, which seeks to convert it into a Central University was also introduced by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. Since the opposition did not pay heed to the repeated pleas of Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan, who was in the Chair, to restore order, the House was adjourned till Monday.
Soon after the House met for the day, it was thrown into turmoil as BJP members, led by Sushma Swaraj, demanded the resignation of Natwar Singh from the Cabinet over the Volcker Committee report, which has named him and the Congress party as beneficiaries of Iraqi oil pay-offs.
She said even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had taken away the External Affairs portfolio from Natwar Singh, he should also be dropped from the Cabinet.
Ahluwalia demanded suspension of Question Hour to take up discussion on the report immediately but sensing the mood of the House, Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat adjourned it till noon.
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