New Delhi:
With only four working days left in this session of Parliament, the government tabled its landmark Food Security Bill on Monday. Minutes after, the Lok Sabha was adjourned as Opposition members converged in the Well of the House demanding that the Law Minister and the Railways Minister, smeared by scandal, resign first.
The BJP has warned the Congress-led UPA government not to try and push important legislation till the two ministers quit. "Get the ministers to resign and run Parliament," said the BJP's Sushma Swaraj, outside the House. But till that happened, she said, the entire Opposition would rise against the government.
Ms Swaraj who is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said her party wanted to debate both the two big bills that the government has lined up to push this session - the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill - but that it could not be done amid ruckus in Parliament.
She pointed out that even Mulayam Singh Yadav, who extends external support to the government, repeatedly tried to say that the bill should not be passed amid chaos.
(Read: Railways Minister must resign, says Samajwadi Party)Both Houses were adjourned repeatedly on Monday, as has happened on most days since Parliament reconvened after recess in the Budget Session.
The Opposition has been demanding the resignation of Law Minister
Ashwani Kumar, accusing him of trying to interfere with what is meant to be an independent probe into how private players got coal licenses. "Be it the PM or the Law Minister, they have no right to continue in office. This is a suggestion as well as our demand," BJP chief Rajnath Singh said.
Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is also in the line of fire after his nephew was arrested for accepting a bribe from a senior railway official who was seeking a plum post.