Parliament's winter session generates heat

Parliament's winter session today opened on a note of confrontation with the Opposition forcing adjournment of the Lok Sabha with a boycott of Home Minister P Chidambaram and on a number of issues including price rise.

But the two sides later reached an agreement on holding a discussion on price rise on which CPI-M will move an adjournment motion that entails voting, contrary to government's claim that it will be a voteless debate on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement.

As expected, it was a stormy start for the session with members raking up issues from prices to Telangana, better prices for cotton and 10 per cent quota for Muslims that led to uproar and an adjournment till noon and later for the day.

Chidambaram, who has been under attack from BJP on 2G spectrum allocation issue, was the target of NDA's ire when he rose to answer the first question of the day on Naxal issue.

The entire BJP stood in unison in protest against the Home Minister whom they have decided to boycott till he resigns. BJP wants Chidambaram's alleged role in 2G scam to be probed.

Slogan-shouting by members on various issues forced Speaker Meira Kumar to temporarily and Deputy Speaker Karia Munda later to adjourn the proceedings for the whole day without transaction of any business.

Among the many papers laid on the table was the statement by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the price situation.

After the disruption, Mukherjee, who is also the Leader of the Lok Sabha, reached out to the Opposition by holding a luncheon meeting with leaders of Left parties who agreed that a discussion on price rise should take place tomorrow.