The first day of the resumed Budget session of Lok Sabha today saw uproar and repeated adjournments as the government laid a copy of land acquisition ordinance which was resisted by a united opposition, with Congress and Trinamool Congress even staging a walkout.
As soon as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy laid a copy of the Ordinance, re-promulgated by the President on April 3 on the table of the House, there was pandemonium.
Agitated members of Congress, Left, TMC, SP, RJD and others stormed the Well raising slogans like "withdraw the bill" and "down with the anti-farmer government". They termed the re-promulgation of the ordinance as "murder of democracy".
Top opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of Congress and Mulayam Singh Yadav of SP, were present in the House.
The continuous din forced Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House for one-and-a-half hours at around 12.30 PM.
But it was similar story when it re-assembled as Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of bringing a law through "backdoor" despite opposition by the farmers and the opposition parties.
He said Congress will talk to like-minded parties to discuss the future course of action against the ordinance.
Joining Kharge, Sudip Bandhopadhyay (TMC) said his party also is "totally" opposed to the ordinance.
Members of the two parties later staged a walkout even as Rudy suggested that members can register their protest when the bill is brought. He said tabling of the re-promulgated ordinance was a necessity under rules.
The fresh ordinance, which is the 11th by the Narendra Modi government, incorporates nine amendments that were part of the bill passed in Lok Sabha last month.
The ordinance, which the government could not get converted into a legislation in the first half of the Budget Session due to stiff opposition in Rajya Sabha, was re-promulgated on April 3, a day before it was to lapse.
