Parliament session: Rajya Sabha need not copy Lok Sabha, says PM Modi

Amid continuous disruption of the Parliament session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said what happened in the Lok Sabha need not be followed in the Rajya Sabha.

The uproar over demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh continued to disrupt the Lok Sabha session and the house was adjourned to meet again only on Monday.

The protest was raised by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) legislators. In the wake of it the Rajya Sabha too was adjourned.

As the house adjourned early in the afternoon, Lok Sabha failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government. 

Meanwhile, union minister Ananth Kumar accused opposition MPs, including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, of ridiculing Parliament and said people would give them a "befitting reply" for mocking the process of a no-confidence motion.

The tactics would boomerang on the opposition, the Union parliamentary affairs minister said, a day after opposition parties protested in the Lok Sabha by holding placards to suggest they had numbers to move a no-confidence motion against the government.

The second leg of the budget session, which started on March 5, seemed to be heading for a washout with both Houses failing to transact any business due to adjournments forced by noisy protests by some parties. The Lok Sabha was adjourned on Wednesday and is to meet again on Monday.

They (opposition MPs) tried to ridicule the functioning of Parliament by holding placards right from the beginning a\nd creating a ruckus. It is the style of Shri Rahul Gandhi to try to ridicule country's politics. This won't yield anything, the Union minister told reporters outside Parliament.

He claimed that the opposition parties lack the numbers to move the motion and wanted show people that they can achieve something without the numbers.

The people will give a befitting reply across the country, and also in Karnataka, for the way they have stalled functioning of Parliament, created a ruckus and ridiculed the process of a no-confidence motion, he added.

The Rajya Sabha on Monday saw a unique protest by opposition parties with members continuing to be in their seats for over 30 minutes after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu called it a day and left the House.

The Lok Sabha, too, failed to take up notices for a no-confidence motion against the government after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House was not in order and adjourned proceedings amid noisy protests over various issues.

In a novel way to convey they have enough numbers to initiate a no-confidence motion, members of the Congress, Left and some other parties displayed blue-coloured placards, each with a circled number -- from 1 to 80 -- along with the words 'For no-confidence'.

At least 50 members are needed to support a no-confidence notice for the House to accept it and start a debate.
(With inputs from agencies)