Amidst the commotion and allegations levelled by non-United Progressive Alliance secular parties that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh-Kausar Bi murder case as a trade-off to secure the Bharatiya Janata Party's support for the nuclear liability Bill, the government tabled the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the issue in Parliament on Wednesday.
The alleged Modi let-off issue, championed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the CPI, and the demand for dismissal of the Karnataka government over the issue of illegal mining, raised by the Bahujan Samaj Party, together stalled the entire day's proceedings in both Houses, which witnessed three adjournments.
Right from the word go, RJD's Lalu Prasad and SP chief Mulayam Singh dominated the scene in the Lok Sabha, entering the well, dashing to the Speaker's podium and even staging a sit-in, which Mr. Prasad did briefly. The Congress and the BJP were charged with having struck a deal, interpreting the CBI clean chit to Mr. Modi as a trade-off for its purported support to the nuclear liability Bill.
The BSP only added to the discomfiture of the BJP by raking up the illegal mining issue and demanding the dismissal of the Karnataka government. The BJP benches silently suffered the twin onslaught of slogans, without trying to deny or counter the allegations, in the Lok Sabha.
The BSP successfully sought to get one back at the BJP for making an issue of the police firing on farmers in Aligarh and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, and attacking the Mayawati government.
Mr. Prasad did not spare the Congress either, charging that it had slapped the Muslims in the face by letting off Mr. Modi.
The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned soon after beginning on all three occasions, and it was amidst this commotion that the Standing Committee's report was tabled by its member Pradeep Tamta.
In the Rajya Sabha, the BSP members were vociferous in demanding the dismissal of the Karnataka government. Defending the move, party leaders said outside the House that the BSP had political interests in the State with two representatives in the State Legislature and a substantial support base.
Barring tabling of papers and the report of the Science and Technology Standing Committee on the nuclear liability Bill by its chairman T. Subbarami Reddy, the upper House could not transact any business.
