The House took up the Question Hour as well as Zero Hour mentions, albeit in the din created by the shouting members of Congress and some other parties.
Some business was conducted in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The house has been witnessing disruptions ever since the Monsoon session began on July 21 as the opposition has been relentlessly and vociferously raising the issue of the Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scandal.
The House took up the Question Hour as well as Zero Hour mentions, albeit in the din created by the shouting members of Congress and some other parties.
The House also saw Home Minister Rajnath Singh making a statement on Gurdaspur terror attack, during which the opposition suspended its protests. However, after the conclusion of the statement, the opposition members resumed their slogan-shouting, prompting Singh to hit at them.
He said the opposition was trying to give an impression that Parliament is not united on the issue of terrorism. He also hit out at Congress, saying coining of the term 'Hindu terrorism' by its previous government had ensured that the country was not able to fight the menace strongly enough.
Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge later said the whole country is one on the issue of terrorism and accused Singh of making a political speech on the subject.
Amid the slogan-shouting and war of words, the House was adjourned repeatedly, before the final one soon after 3:30 pm, making it a near washout of two weeks of business.
In the afternoon, which is reserved for Private Members' Business on Fridays, Congress members trooped into the Well raising the issue of quorum.
Mr Kharge said, "we always support Private Members' Bills... the Monsoon Session of Parliament has not yet started. Agitation is going on. How can Parliament function?"
His party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia said there was an issue of quorum as the members protesting in the Well cannot be counted for the purpose.
Mr Thambidurai rejected the contention of the Congress about the quorum, but adjourned the House saying that the opposition did not want the House to function.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day when B Mahtab (BJD) stood up to speak on a private member resolution for 'rehabilitation and welfare of displaced persons from Kashmir'.
The House has not been able to function properly for the past two weeks as Congress has been pressing for resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over Lalit Modi controversy and ouster of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over Vyapam scam. TRS members have also been demanding a separate High Court for Telangana.
Earlier in the day, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ran the proceedings amid bedlam. She refused to adjourn the House and the House saw the Question Hour being taken up fully despite over 40 opposition members in the Well shouting slogans and displaying placards.
The questions listed for the day were raised, mostly by members of BJP and its allies, and the ministers concerned replied.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley too tabled the first batch of the supplementary demands of grants for 2015-16.
A visibly peeved Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu termed the Opposition protests as a "fraud played on the democracy".
Ms Mahajan repeatedly requested the protesting opposition members to put down the placards as it was against the rules.
As the pleas went unheeded, the Speaker warned that she would be forced to 'name' the members (meaning take action) and was even heard asking for the names of those holding placards.
"You have to put down the placards now... You are taking away the rights of more than 300 members," she said.
Warning the protesting members, Ms Mahajan said, "I am not going to adjourn the House today", which elicited loud thumping of desks by the ruling BJP members.
Ms Mahajan even asked Congress members Sushmita Dev and Gaurav Gogoi to put down their placards.
As the protests persisted, Naidu wondered whether "Parliament is helpless and can 40 members take the House to ransom? We cannot allow this (protests)... This is a tamasha, a fraud played on the democracy of the country." he said.