RS adjourned for day over Oppn demand for JPC on nuclear deal

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day following pandemonium as opposition NDA and UNPA members demanded constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee over on the Indo-US nuclear deal, charging the UPA government with compromising the country's interests while negotiating the 123 agreement.

As soon as the house assembled at 1400 hrs after three adjournments, the opposition members trooped into the well of the house, shouting slogans and demanding that a JPC be formed to examine the deal instead of the UPA-Left Panel.

Members of the BJP, AIADMK, TDP, Janata Dal (United) and the Samajwadi Party shouted slogans like ''JPC lao desh bachao (Bring JPC to save the country).'' They said the non-formation of the JPC was an insult to Parliament and the country.

They also alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the UPA government had ''sold'' the nation's interests.

Expressing their opposition to the UPA-Left Panel on the Indo-US nuclear deal, they shouted slogans like ''UPA-Left ki yeh kaisi larayi, chor chor mausere bhai (What a fight between UPA and Left, both are partners in the crime)''.

Slogans denouncing the Congress and the Left reverberated in the house.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri and some treasury bench members made a bid to counter the opposition charges but nothing could be heard in the din.

Mr P J Kurien, who in the chair, tried to pacify the irate opposition members, stating that their behaviour was unbecoming of Parliamentarians. However, when his pleas went unheeded, Mr Kurien adjourned the house till tomorrow.

Earlier, the upper house was adjourned thrice within one hour as the sloganeering Opposition members virtually disrupted the entire Question Hour over their demand for a JPC.

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