1 Week Of Parliament Impasse Over Adani Row, Rahul Gandhi, No End In Sight

Amid the ongoing week-long logjam over an impasse between the BJP and opposition parties, the latter today protested in the corridor, reiterating their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issues. They raised slogans and hung a huge banner saying "We want JPC" from the first floor of the Parliament building.

Congress, DMK, left parties, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders were part of the protest.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman invited floor leaders for a meeting in his chamber earlier today over the issue. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has also called an all-party meeting in his chamber at 1 pm in an attempt to get the house to work without interruptions. He had yesterday too appealed to all parties, separately, to let the house conduct business. This is the first time the Speaker has called an all-party meeting since the chaos in the house started at the start of the second half of the budget session.

Leaders of opposition parties also attended a strategy meeting in the chamber of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Khargeji's chamber in the Parliament building. INC, DMK, JDU, SS, CPM, CPI, MDMK, JMM, IUML, J&K NC, NCP, AAP and VCK participated in the meeting.

The political stalemate continued for the seventh consecutive day as four Congress MPs submitted adjournment motion notices in the Rajya Sabha.

Trinamool Congress MPs held a separate protest in Parliament complex and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence on the Adani issue.

Accusing the government of helping businessman Gautam Adani by not ordering a probe into allegations of fraud levelled against his group, the party demanded that Mr Adani be arrested.

Opposition leaders have accused the PM of shielding the billionaire business tycoon, who they say is his close friend, by distracting people from the allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani group with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's London remarks.

The government has said that the matter is being looked into by the Supreme Court, which has constituted a committee in this regard.

Both houses of Parliament were adjourned till 2 pm on Tuesday amid uproar over the Adani issue and demand by ruling party members that Rahul Gandhi apologise for his remarks on Indian democracy.

The Adani group has denied the allegations of wrongdoing.

The BJP has been demanding an apology from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on Indian democracy on his UK trip. The Wayanad MP has sought time to respond to BJP's allegations that he asked for foreign intervention in India and insulted the country by question the state of India democracy abroad, but the ruling party has been protesting in both houses of the parliament, asking him to apologise first.

Rahul Gandhi has refused to apologise, and said he will respond to the allegations in the Lok Sabha. BJP sources, however, said they won't let him speak unless he apolgises first, even outside the Parliament.

At Cambridge University, Mr Gandhi had said that Indian democracy is under pressure and opposition voices are being stifled. "The institutional framework which is required for democracy -- Parliament, free press, and the judiciary, just the idea of mobilisation, and moving around all are getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy," he had said.