Disruption by the clock

The United Progressive Alliance government is in the habit of taking the moral high ground and blaming the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for "obstructionist tactics" and stalling proceedings in Parliament. So it was interesting to see the tables turned in the second half of the opening day of the Budget session. The Treasury benches did everything to ensure that contentious issues that were bound to put the government on the back foot, such as the leak of the parliamentary report on 2G and the government's alleged interference in the investigative report on coal block allocations, did not get taken up for discussion. So when All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member V Maitreyan was permitted to move a motion for suspension of Question Hour on the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation in the coal scam and the voice vote (in favour and against the motion) was inconclusive, the chairman said the only option left was to put it to formal voting. In response, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath shot up and told the Chair, with his eyes fixed on the clock, "But there are only 10 minutes to go." Technically, Question Hour begins at 11 a m and lapses by 12 noon, so the motion would become infructuous by then. An angry Trinamool Congress member Derek O'Brien objected to Nath's tactics, saying, "The issue is not about 10 minutes or nine minutes..." In the din that followed, the clock struck 12 and Question Hour was over.