The Lok Sabha was adjourned for yet another day on Tuesday, soon after noon, when members of many opposition parties including MPs of the TDP, the TRS, the Congress and the AIADMK stormed into the well, raising slogans as they sought to put pressure on the government.
A notable slogan that was raised was related to the PNB scam: Chhota Modi Kahan Gaya? (Where has Nirav Modi gone?)
Tuesday panned out in an identical manner to previous days ever since Parliament reassembled on March 5, after a recess in the Budget Session.
If the government is trying to reach out to the opposition parties in any manner, they are neither talking about it nor is any move visible. The only exception was Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, who through a news channel, requested Congress and other parties to let the house function, and added, "It seems Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi don't believe in democracy. They speak outside on democracy but don't practice it in Parliament. Congress doesn’t have democracy in their genes."
In fact, important issues are now discussed more outside Parliament than on the floor of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha by both the Congress and the BJP. On March 5, when the house was adjourned after the opposition stormed the well over the NPA and PNB issue, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad responded to it by way of a press conference from the party headquarters.
The breakdown in relations between the government and the opposition seems to have worsened compared with previous sessions of Parliament, partly because of happenings post the Tripura results, resulting in vandalism of statues in different parts of the country.
The Karti Chidambaram case, seen as a way of targeting senior Congress leader and former minister P. Chidambaram, has also added fuel to the tension, even though the BJP has not commented on it in recent days. Congress president Rahul Gandhi however did mention that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was not talking about the PNB scam, alleging involvement of his daughter, in what seems like a tit for tat to the Karti development.
The AIADMK was more miffed as the government had, on Monday, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, against the setting up of a Cauvery Management Board.