With just a day left, the Winter session of Parliament is facing a complete washout as it failed to transact any business again on Thursday amid the continuing logjam between the Government and Opposition over demonetisation and other issues like VVIP chopper scam.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha continued to witness deadlock even on the penultimate day on Thursday. The Winter Session had commenced on November 16 and standoff continued over the manner in which a debate should be held on demonetisation.
The Rajya Sabha witnessed sharp exchanges between Treasury and Opposition members leading to pandemonium in the House.
The Congress-led Opposition demanded farm loan waiver to give relief to the farmers hit by demonetisation and adverse weather.
To this, the BJP members shouted slogans while displaying copies of a news report which claimed that some people in the erstwhile UPA regime had allegedly received money in the VVIP helicopter deal. They demanded to know the beneficiaries of the chopper scam.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the ruling party not allowing Parliament to function is "unprecedented".
"It is the ruling party which is disrupting the House...in both Houses (of Parliament), it is the ruling party which is not allowing the Parliament to function. It is for the first time in the history of independent India that the ruling party is not allowing the House to function," Azad said.
Alleging that the Centre was anti-farmer and its policies were ruining crops, Azad claimed farmers are dying, their vegetables rotting and they are not sowing seeds. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and other States are facing grave distress and the Centre should waive off their loan, he demanded.
Mayawati (BSP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) and Derek O'Brien (TMC) also rose to speak but nothing could be heard in the din.
Sharad Yadav (JD-U) and Naresh Agarwal of Samajwadi Party also said the condition of farmers is bad after demonetisation.
Similar trading of charges was also seen in the Lok Sabha.
Both the Government and the Opposition traded charges at each other. The Government attacked the Congress by raking in the Gandhi family’s name in the VVIP helicopter scam.
While TMC's Sudip Bandhopadhyay and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition wanted a debate on demonetisation even without voting.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar attacked the Opposition, accusing it of scuttling debate from the day the session began on November 16.
Charging the Opposition with attempting to fail the demonetisation move, Kumar said the Congress was trying to "manage currency"(note jugaad) post scrapping of high value currency notes.