RS adjourned for the day over Kashmir talks issue

New Delhi, Apr 26 (UNI) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day today as the main Opposition BJP disrupted the proceedings in the House demanding the government to take Parliament into confidence over talks on the Kashmir issue.

As soon as the House reassembled at 1200 hours, BJP MPs walked into the well and started shouting slogans demanding the arrest of breakaway Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for ''allowing Indian territory to be used for airing anti-India propoganda''.

The MPs shouted the slogan in chorus ''Jahan Balidan Huye Mukherjee, Woh Kashmir Hamara Hai'' and demanded the arrest of secessionist forces, disallowing any transaction to take place in the House.

The papers were hurriedly laid on the table of the House by the ministers amid confusion and sloganeering and nothing was audible in the din.

The TDP members also trooped into the well to draw the attention of the Chair towards the Babli project being constructed upstream of Godavari river by Maharashtra government. Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan, who was in the chair, said the issue they were seeking to discuss has been allowed for discussion and he could permit discussion only if there was order in the House.

Earlier, the House had to miss the Question Hour with various parties wanting to raise their demands including Nandigram, arrest of BJP MP Babubhai Katara, who was detained in a human trafficking case.

Soon after the House assembled after recess, Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat administered the oath of membership to noted Agricultral expert M S Swaminathan as a nominated member in the House even as Opposition members demanded a discussion on the Nandigram violence dispensing Question Hour.

There was an obituary reference by the Chair about the death of former minister and a member of the House Ram Gopal Sisodia from Madhya Pradesh.

The House also deplored the terror attacks in Algeria and Casablanca in Morocco this month and expressed solidarity with the people of the two countries.

Despite the Chairman's repeated pleas, the furore intensified interspersed with slogan shouting resulting in the adjournment of the House.

UNI