Deadlock leads to wastage of yet another day of Parliament

The deadlock over demonetisation led to wastage of the 14th working day of the Winter session of Parliament today even as the government dared the Opposition to have a debate on the issue rather than disrupting the proceedings.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha failed to transact any substantive business as Opposition continuously created pandemonium, leading to early adjournment of the two Houses.
In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the issue of post-demonetisation impact on the public and said 84 people had died to the "unplanned" implementation.
He said Congress wanted to know who was responsible for these deaths. Some other opposition parties like SP and BSP wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise for putting the common man to hardship.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Opposition was using the tactics of disruption on a daily basis rather than resuming the discussion initiated on the first day of the Winter session on November 16 and which is yet to conclude.
The government, he said, had not wasted even a minute to agree to a debate on the issue. It also agreed to the rule under which the debate is to be conducted as well as to the demand that the Prime Minister will participate in it, said, who is also Leader of the House.

But instead of participating and concluding the debate, the Opposition has been using the Zero Hour to raise the issue for "getting footage on TV rather than listening to substantive facts on the issue. ... If the Opposition has the guts, the debate should resume," the Leader of the House said.

Immediately thereafter, BJP members started raising slogans like "himmat hai to charcha karo (If you have guts, discuss the matter)."
Since Azad spoke about the demonetisation issue during Zero Hour when only matters of urgent importance are highlighted, Jaitley raised a point of order, saying it is not permitted under rules.
He questioned how the Chair allowed the issue to be raised when a substantial portion of the debate on the same subject has already been held.
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien agreed with Jaitley and asked the Opposition benches if they were ready for a discussion.
As Treasury benches continued to shout slogans seeking resumption of discussion, the Opposition members raised slogans daring Modi to come to the House and listen to the debate. As the din continued, Kurien adjourned the proceedings till noon.