Rajya Sabha adjourns till noon following noisy Congress protest

NEW DELHI: Amid continued protests by Congress, proceedings of the pre-lunch session in Rajya Sabha were washed out again today as its members created ruckus to protest the 'dictatorial' attitude of government in suspending its 25 Lok Sabha MPs.

The Zero Hour and Question Hour could not be taken up as Congress members entered the Well and raised slogans, forcing the Chair to adjourn the House twice within minutes after it met.

When the House met after the first adjournment for Question Hour, Chairman Hamid Ansari's pleas for restoring order fell on deaf ears. SP member Naresh Agrawal, who had earlier sought to raise the issue of three BJP MPs writing to Chairman seeking action against Congress members protesting against Lalitgate, Vyapam scam and other issues, again tried to raise the matter, saying the House has no tradition of suspending members.

Congress members soon trooped into the Well and started raising slogans like "Tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorial attitude will not be tolerated)", "Modishahi nahin chalegi", "Modi model nahin chalega" and "Kala dhan kahan gaya, Chhota Modi kha gaya" (where did the blackmoney go, little Modi has gobbled it up).

Chairman Ansari asked members not to shout slogans saying "this is unbecoming".

As members of opposition and treasury benches indulged in heated exchanged, he said, "The members know the rules well. We don't need to teach rules". He then adjourned the House till 1430 hours.

Earlier in the morning, there was pandemonium in the Upper House soon after it mourned the death of former member Jagannath Singh and paid homage to freedom fighters.

After the laying of papers, Agarwal (SP) raised the issue of three BJP members giving notice seeking action against Congress MPs for raising slogans and trooping into the Well regularly.

The SP member alleged that the BJP MPs are trying to "pressurise" the Chairman by writing to him demanding action against the Congress members under rules 255 and 256 for entering the Well of the House.