Rajya Sabha impasse continues, adjourned till Wednesday

The impasse in the Rajya Sabha continued on Friday with talks between the government and the Congress party failing to find a way out and the Congress forcing an adjournment in less than half an hour after the house met.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, having failed to persuade the opposition to relent, adjourned the upper house till Wednesday.

As soon as the papers, reports of various committees and statements were tabled in the house, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded that the house be adjourned.

"You had formed a committee to end this logjam. One meeting has taken place (between the government and Congress MPs) but no solution has been reached. But talks are on," Azad told the Chair.

"Since this is the last day of the working week and there is not much business, my request to you is to adjourn the house till this impasse ends. If a solution is found by the evening, well and good. Even we want that the house should run. We don't want to stall it by coming into the well," he added.

The Congress has been demanding an apology or clarification from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his allegations against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

Modi, during campaigning in the Gujarat Assembly polls, had claimed that during a dinner at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's house, the guests, including Manmohan Singh, discussed the state polls with Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mehmood and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel urged the opposition members to allow the house to run.

"Talks are going on to end the impasse. Hope it will be fruitful. Let the house function. This is not such an issue which cannot be resolved. I request you to allow the house to function," Goel said.

But Congress member Anand Sharma urged the Chairman to adjourn the House till a solution was reached.

Reacting to Sharma's demand, Naidu said: "If you do not want the house to function and want me to adjourn it, better that I adjourn it for the day." Naidu then adjourned the house.

--IANS

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