Mulayam's house arrest: SP disrupts LS proceedings

The alleged house arrest of Mulayam Singh Yadav by the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh generated heat in the Lok Sabha on Monday with Samajwadi Party members disrupting proceedings leading to two adjournments.

As the House assembled for the day, Speaker Meira Kumar read out the obituary reference to former human resource development minister Arjun Singh who breathed his last on Friday.

The moment the Speaker took up the Question Hour, SP members rushed to the well claiming that their supremo has been kept under house arrest by the Bahajan Samaj Party government to prevent them from leading a three-day agitation against the state government.

The SP members chanted slogans demanding dismissal of the Mayawati government accusing it of authoritarian tendencies. "Uttar Pradesh sarkar barkhast karo, tanashahi wali sarkar nahi chalegi (Dismiss the UP government, we will not tolerate a government that behaves in a dictatorial manner)," they shouted.

In a bid to pacify SP, the Speaker allowed SP member Reoti Raman Singh to raise the matter. Singh said Yadav and a number of other SP MPs besides scores of party workers were kept under detention by the UP government.

Leader of the House and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he had requested Home Minister P Chidambaram to ascertain the facts and inform the Lok Sabha accordingly. "We will share the information with the House during the day," Mukherjee said.

However, SP members were not pacified by the assurances and stormed the well once again.

BSP leader Dara Singh Chauhan and a few of his colleagues were seen trying to counter the SP members. National Democratic Alliance convener and Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav was also seen trying to make some point.

As members were unrelenting, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 1130 hours. It was a similar story when the House reassembled and Kumar adjourned the House till noon.