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UTI issue, PM's threat rocks Parliament

The Rajya Sabha Chairman, Vice President Krishan Kant, adjourned the House for the day following an uproar by the opposition members demanding that the government clarify on the issue of PM's desire to resign.

Raising the matter at 1400 hrs, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee pointed out that Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan had circulated a note in the House regarding the prime minister's threat to resign.

Mukherjee said that the note was the business of the National Democratic Alliance coalition and, therefore, he wanted to know why it had been circulated in the House.

Mukherjee wanted the government to make an immediate clarification on the prime minister's threat to resign.

The NDA benches, however, shouted at the opposition and the Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha began reply on the UTI debate.

However, when the uproar reached a crescendo, the chairman Krishan Kant adjourned the house for the day.

Earlier, the UTI muddle rocked the Rajya Sabha leading to its adjournment till 1400 hours as agitated Congress and Samajwadi Party members stalled Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha from replying on the fiasco, charging him with skirting the main issue.

Sinha had earlier admitted that the value of the stocks held under US-64 had declined. "It still has a corpus, it still has a value. As we go along I am sure we will achieve the levels it had before June 30 this year," he said.

"We have come out with a redemption scheme operational from August 1. The government stands behind UTI, as far as the redemption is concerned... it's not that someone has walked away with the money," he said.

"The value has declined, because it is influenced by the fluctuations of the stock market," he affirmed.

Earlier too, agitated opposition members led by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha till 1400 hrs.

They rushed to the well of the House shouting slogans against the government on the UTI controversy and the alleged killing of dalits and minorities in Uttar Pradesh.

As soon as the House commenced, the SP members and the senior Congress member S Jaipal Reddy raised the issue.

Reddy pointed out that UTI controversy had got a new twist following the revelation that the Union finance minister's assistant was involved in the alleged UTI scam.

The speaker GMC Balayogi, however, told the SP and Congress members that they could raise the UTI issue during zero hour.

However, the SP members rushed into the well of the house shouting, "Yeh bhrasht sarkar nahin chalegi(This corrupt government should go)."

When the disorder seemed to go out of hand, Balayogi adjourned the house till 1400 hrs.

Earlier the House was adjourned for ten minutes. It reassembled only to be adjourned again till lunch.

The chair adjourned the House when Sinha was replying to a short duration discussion on US-64 after ruling and opposition members clashed over the frequent interruptions by the Congress and Samajwadi Party.

Sinha has come under strong pressure to resign over the scandal involving the UTI decision to freeze trading in US-64 scheme.

About 20 million investors were left in the lurch by the six-month freeze, which followed massive redemptions, allegedly by large unit holders who had been told of the impending freeze.

Former UTI chairman P S Subramanyam and two executive directors of the country's largest mutual fund have been arrested by the CBI investigators in this regard.

Additional inputs: Agencies

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