House truce on the cards as partial normalcy returns to Lok Sabha

A truce looks on the cards in Lok Sabha even as partial normalcy was restored on Tuesday with the passage of two bills amid Congress-led Opposition forcing one adjournment and then resorting to a boycott of the House for the day.

The House passed two bills to repeal 245 obsolete and archaic laws, including the 158-year-old Calcutta Pilots Act of 1859 and the 1911 Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the old and many irrelevant pre-independence laws were the “unfortunate part of the colonial legacy” and repealing them was a progressive move that ref lected the “pro-reform” approach of the government.

Earlier in the day, Congress MPs and a handful of allies forced a brief adjournment during the zero hour by shouting slogans and demanding PM’s apology for his ‘conspiracy’ allegation against Manmohan Singh during the campaigning in Gujarat.