Upper house uproar over Bofors issue

Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed two adjournments in the pre-noon session after uproar by Opposition BJP and AIADMK over a former Swedish police chief's allegation that payoffs were made in purchase of Bofors guns. Chairman Hamid Ansari said the Question Hour will not be suspended and asked members to resume their places. "Please allow Question Hour to proceed... The Question Hour cannot be suspended," he said and took up the first listed question of the day. But as the opposition members were unrelenting, he adjourned the House for 15 minutes. When the House met again, similar scenes were repeated with BJP members  shouting slogans. Ansari repeatedly asked the members to take their seats and raise the issue during Zero Hour. "Please sit down. Allow Question Hour to proceed. Raise the issue at 1200 hours," he pleaded with the agitated members. Mani Shankar Aiyar (Cong) said Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitely was the Additional Solicitor General who had done paper work in the Bofors investigation case. Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) said very serious questions have been raised by the former Swiss police chief while his party members continued shouting slogans. Amid din, Ansari adjourned the House till noon. The Lok Sabha also saw brief disruptions on the Bofors issue with Jaswant Singh (BJP) and Basudeb Acharia (CPI-M) demanding suspension of Question Hour. Speaker Meira Kumar's repeated pleas to raise the matter during Zero Hour found little favour with the members. "I have received your notice. I will allow you to raise the matter during Zero Hour," the Speaker said. As BJP members insisted that the Chair should hear the topic their colleague wanted to raise, Kumar called Singh to speak. Singh said he wanted to raise the issue in the wake "new and recent disclosures in the continuing saga of Bofors." The Speaker said that Singh can make a detailed statement during the Zero Hour. Acharia also said that he be allowed to raise the issue which has been debated inside and outside the House, but the Speaker went ahead with the Question Hour. Uproar in LS over Bofors issue, House adjourned for 90 minutes The Bofors issue on Thursday led to disruption in Lok Sabha with the BJP and Left parties demanding reopening of the graft case and a judicial probe into it.