Parliament abruptly adjourned sine die

The Budget session of Parliament was abruptly adjourned sine die today, with the second phase turning out to be a total washout amid opposition demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ministers Ashwani Kumar and P K Bansal.

The second phase of the session, which began on April 22, was adjourned sine die two days before its scheduled end.

With the sudden curtailment of the session, key legislations like the National Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill could not be passed.

The only business that was transacted was passage of the Finance Bill marking the completion of the Budgetary exercise and the Railway Budget without any discussion after walkout by the Opposition.

The government tried hard for passage of the Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha but Opposition BJP stood ground saying it would facilitate its passage only if the Congress removed Bansal and Kumar.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari made a terse comment on the functioning of the House saying the record of work done and not done in the second half of the Budget Session was in public domain and did not require any commentary.

He also put three questions including has the balance between deliberation, regulation and accountability totally been lost and have the members of this body assessed the impact of frequent disruptions.

With not much work done in the House, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar chose not to make her customary valedictory address.

The three-month long session had begun on February 21 with President Pranab Mukherjee's maiden address to the joint sitting of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Before going into recess on March 22, Parliament saw some stirring debates on the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill and the Motion of Thanks on the President's address.

Parliament spoke in one voice to condemn the brutal incident of gangrape of a Delhi girl and passed a tough anti-rape law.

Members were also united in rejecting a resolution of Pakistan's National Assembly condemning the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Parliament unanimously asked Pakistan to refrain from interfering in India's internal affairs and desist from acts of support for extremist and terrorist elements.

Both the Houses saw lively and often acrimonious debates on various issues including on the acquisition of VVIP helicopters, discussions on the Railway and General budgets, plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka and increasing pollution in various rivers, particularly Ganga and Yamuna.

The second part of the Budget session took a tumultuous turn with revelations of government diluting a CBI's status report on probe into the alleged irregularities in the coal block allocation.

As the government was grappling with this issue, Railway Minister P K Bansal was caught in a controversy over top level appointments in Railways giving fodder to the Opposition to take on the government in a more aggressive manner.

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's acquittal in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots saw Akali Dal demanding a probe by a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team into the matter.