Parliament live: ‘Just get rid of question hour’ says furious Ansariby FP Politics 19 mins ago
11.11 am: Livid Hamid Ansari proposes dispensing with question hour altogether
And in the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Hamid Ansari has had enough! After exhorting MPs to sit down and let question hour proceed, a visibly furious Ansari got up and made a short speech saying,
“For many days now the chair has had to watch helplessly while question hour is disrupted again and again. So I propose a meeting of the rules committee and put before the members, two options. One, that we move question hour to another part of the day, or two, seeing that no one is interested in having their questions answered, we dispense with question hour altogther. This house is adjourned for thirty minutes!”
He then got up and walked off, leaving a stunned Rajya Sabha in his wake.
11.04 am: Lok Sabha adjourned till noon
And we all saw this coming. The Lok Sabha began and ended in the blink of an eye, after BJP MPs stormed the well of the house, demanding the suspension of question hour to bring up the Wal-Mart lobbying report that revealed it had spent $25 million, lobbying for access in to India.
Speaker Meira Kumar tried telling the MPs that she would give them zero hour for the discussion, but to no avail. The house will now meet again at noon.
10.52 am: BJP gives notice for suspension of question hour
The BJP Parliamentary board meeting has ended, and it has been decided to raise the Wal-Mart lobbying report in both houses of Parliament. The party has already given notice for the suspension of question hour. Always an ominous sign, because that is often the precursor to sloganeering and adjournment.
Speaking to reporters after the parliamentary meeting, BJP spokesman Venkiah Naidu said, “In the US lobbying may be legal, but in India it is not. We want an independent probe in to the matter”.
The government which has been dismissing the BJP’s charges of ‘benign bribery’, are saying that they are willing to give the BJP a reply on the floor of the house.
10:30 am: BJP demands independent probe into Wal-Mart report, Congress goes into a huddle
CNN IBN reports that the BJP is seeking an independent probe into the report that alleged Wal-Mart had spent crores to lobby for an entry into the Indian retail market.
Like in the past, expect the BJP to settle for nothing less than their demand and it could mean a noisy day in Parliament again.
The channel reports that the BJP has given a notice for suspension of question hour in both Houses to debate the matter.
Meanwhile, the Congress core committee is meeting in Parliament to decide their course of action. Too early to predict a washed out day in Parliament?
9.30 am: BJP to bring up Wal-Mart lobbying report in Lok Sabha
The UPA government was probably hoping that last week’s vote would put an end to the uproar around FDI in multi-brand retail and Wal-Mart, but clearly that is not to be. Armed with a disclosure report that revealed that Wal-Mart had spent a whopping $25 million lobbying for access to India, the BJP is all set to storm the Lok Sabha after bringing it up in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.
The stance of the BJP is that ‘lobbying’ is a more ‘benign’ form of bribery and is demanding to know into whose pockets that money went.
Reuters
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Rajya Sabha yesterday that in 2012 alone, Wal-Mart spent $3 million in India. “Lobbying is illegal in India. This is a case of bribery,” he said.
Prasad demanded names of the recipients of Rs 125 crore spent by Wal-Mart for lobbying in India be made public.
“If Walmart can disclose to the US Senate on lobbying money, then India should exert pressure on it to reveal the names of recipients here,” he said.
The opposition party is using the report as another platform from which to launch their demand that the decision to introduce 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail be scrapped altogether, or postponed at the very least.
The upper house of Parliament was adjourned repeatedly over the issue, with the opposition shouting down the arguments of Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs, Rajiv Shukla.
The US has come out in defence of Wal-Mart, saying that the company had not violated any US law in its lobbying activities, while local joint venture Bharti Wal-Mart said that the expenditures are a compilation of expenses associated with staff, association dues, consultants and contributions spent in the US.
With inputs from agencies
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/parliament-live-just-get-rid-of-question-hour-says-furious-ansari-552811.html
