Budget session: RS, LS rocked by Opposition protests over Uttarakhand crisis

The Budget session got off to a stormy start on 25 April, with the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha being rocked by protests over the Uttarakhand crisis. The Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm following the commotion created by Opposition.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad brought up the issue of Uttarakhand and said that central government deliberately provokes Opposition. 

"Jaanboojh kar kendriya sarkaar provoke karti hai opposition ko. Humne dekha kis prakaar ek chuni hui sarkaar Arunachal mein giraayi gayi," (The center is deliberately provoking the opposition. We've seen how they toppled an elected government in Arunachal Pradesh) said Ghulam Nabi Azad. 

The Opposition termed the central government as "murderers of democracy" by raising slogans of 'Loktantra ke hatyaaron sharam karo.'

On the other hand, around 20 Congress MPs including Mallikarjun Kharge & KC Venugopal sat on the floor in Lok Sabha near Speaker's chair in protest.

Kharge said, "Centre wants to destabilize all non-BJP Governments,they are killing democracy."

Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lok Sabha said, "We have nothing to do with it, crisis in Uttarakhand is due to Congress's internal problem."

After being adjourned till noon, proceedings in the Upper House had resumed as the Opposition began raising slogans of 'Taanashahi nahin chalegi' (Dictatorship is unacceptable).

Amid the commotion, BJP leader Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha said, "You want to discuss it as a pre-proclamation stage, this cannot happen."

The JDU also raised a notice in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of Uttarakhand political crisis.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, "First part of budget session was productive, hope that second part is the same as well. We hope that all parties will cooperate in making second part of budget session a success as well."