Lok Sabha adjourned for day amid opposition uproar over Shah's Ambedkar remarks

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Thursday amid continuous noisy protests by opposition benches over Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks related to B R Ambedkar.

The House was adjourned for the first time soon after it met at 11 am following noisy protests by the Opposition seeking an apology from Shah for his remarks on Ambedkar.

As soon as the House met, opposition members were on their feet raising their voices and staging protests.

Speaker Om Birla tried to pacify them and announced the demise of former Union minister E V K S Elangovan, who was a member of the Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

After he paid tributes to the departed leader, the House observed silence for sometime.

As soon as the obituary reference was over, the opposition members again staged noisy protests. Birla immediately adjourned the House till 2 pm.

Even before the House re-assembled at 2 pm, opposition members, including Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, were raising slogans including 'Jai Bhim', holding posters of the iconic leader.

At 2 pm, the noisy protests continued and Dilip Saikia, who was in the Chair, adjourned the proceedings for the day.

While he was announcing that the House proceedings were being adjourned, some Congress MPs came near the Chair. House marshals were seen protecting the Chair as Saikia left the Lok Sabha chamber.

The opposition sloganeering continued well after adjournment was announced till the BJP and other ruling alliance members had left the House chamber.

The government had listed a resolution for Thursday to refer the two bills on simultaneous polls to a joint committee of the two Houses.

But the House could barely meet for less than five minutes during the day and it could not be put for adoption.

Before the two Houses met, a face-off between the opposition and NDA MPs in Parliament premises over the alleged insult to Ambedkar left former minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi and another ruling party MP injured.

The BJP accused Rahul Gandhi of pushing the senior member, a charge rejected by the Congress leader.

A massive political row erupted on Wednesday as the Congress and other opposition parties launched an all-out attack on Home Minister Shah for his remarks on Ambedkar and demanded his sacking, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders rallied to Shah's defence and said he has exposed Congress' "anti-Ambedkar" stand.

Shah said the Congress had "distorted" his comments under a "malicious campaign" after the discussion on the Constitution "established" that the opposition party was against Ambedkar and reservation.

Prime Minister Modi hit out at the Congress, saying its "rotten ecosystem" and "malicious lies" cannot hide its misdeeds and said the home minister had exposed the opposition party's "dark history of insulting" Ambedkar. PTI ACB NAB NAB KVK KVK