Rajya Sabha Winter Session: Day 1 adjourned without any business

New Delhi: Amidst a ruckus by the opposition, Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Friday.  The issues raised were Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Sharad Yadav's disqualification and the allegations of conniving with Pakistan levelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his predecessor Manmohan Singh. The pre-lunch and post-lunch sittings, the House saw repeated adjournments. As soon as the House met after the lunch break, Samajwadi Party member Naresh Agarwal raised a Point of Order on the government giving an affidavit in the Supreme Court regarding setting up of fast track courts for trials of the elected representatives. As Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien disallowed discussion on the topic, the opposition members created pandemonium. Kurien adjourned the House for 10 minutes but as soon as it reconvened. Later, Kurien then adjourned the House for the day. Earlier, the House was adjourned till 2.30 p.m. soon after it met for the Question Hour after a short adjournment, amidst heated exchanges between the opposition and the government over allegations against Manmohan Singh and others. However, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the request and asked the members to continue with Question Hour. This led to a heated exchange between the opposition members and the government. Naidu adjourned the proceedings till 2.30 p.m., stressing that the members were not willing to let the House run. Modi had claimed that during a meeting at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's house, the guests including Manmohan Singh, discussed the Gujarat polls with Pakistan's High Commissioner to India and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. Earlier, the House saw a brief adjournment over the disqualification of JD-U members Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar Ansari. Naidu announced this in the House soon after the Rajya Sabha met for the day, citing defection as the ground for the disqualification. As the opposition members raised objections to it, Naidu said that there could not be any discussion on the Chair's ruling. The JD-U MPs loudly objected to it while the opposition members came near the Chair's podium shouting slogans. The Chair adjourned the House till 12 noon. Earlier, Naidu congratulated Indian sportspersons, including nominated member Mary Kom, who performed well recently in various sports at the international level. Prime Minister Modi also introduced the new members of his Council of Ministers to the House. (with input from agencies)