Congress protests, Lok Sabha adjourned for day

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on Monday after three adjournments following protests by Congress members who raised slogans and came near the Speaker's podium demanding resignation of three BJP leaders.

As 25 Congress members, who were suspended for five days, returned to the house, scenes which had disrupted the proceedings of the house last week returned.

As soon as the house assembled in the morning, Congress leader Mllikarjun Kharge said the way External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had spoken in the house when the opposition was not present was not proper.

The Congress, along with several opposition parties, had been boycotting the lower house in protest against the suspension of 25 Congress members.

"The way she tried to speak in the house when the entire opposition was not there is unacceptable. Her contention that she helped former IPL chief Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds is not acceptable," he said.

Kharge and other Congress leaders M. Veerappa Moily and K.C. Venugopal had moved adjournment motions on the issue.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she would not allow adjournment motions and said a discussion on the issues could be held later.

Following this, opposition Congress members trooped near the Speaker's podium with placards in their hands and started shouting slogans against the government.

Mahajan said: "I am requesting you please do not bring placards into the house. Do not come to the well."

Soon after this, she adjourned the house till noon.

At noon, when the house reassembled, Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai adjourned the house till 12.30 p.m., after the tabling of a few official papers.

As the Congress members kept pressing their demand, he adjourned the house till 2 p.m.

Congress members again came near the Speaker's podium soon after the house met in the post-lunch session and raised anti-government slogans. Some of them were also carrying placards.

Some members raised their respective issues amid slogan-shouting by the Congress members. The deputy speaker later adjourned the house for the day.

The Congress, supported by several other opposition parties, has been demanding the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for allegedly helping former IPL chief Lalit Modi and that of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.

Lalit Modi is facing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.