Food bill in doldrums as Parliament adjourned again

The government's much-vaunted food security bill today looked increasingly unlikely to make it through parliament in the ongoing monsoon session, as the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition, seems bent on stymieing without actually opposing the bill by holding up parliament.

Apart from the issue of missing files in the coal block allocation scam over which it has been agitating, chaos broke out in both houses as soon as they convened over the issue of suspension of Andhra Pradesh MPs, forcing adjournments.

Andhra Pradesh MPs, furious over parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath's motion to suspend Lok Sabha MPs, redoubled their shouting and chanting, leading to an adjournment of the Lok Sabha for the rest of the day.

The BJP's Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, said she and her party are all for parliament to function. However, it was the government's responsibility to come up with an explanation on the missing 'coalgate' files and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should come up with an explanation.

As their coalgate ruckus looked like fizzling out in the face of the government's willingness to make a statement on the issue, the BJP then decided to piggyback on the disruptive Andhra Pradesh MPs.

Kamal Nath has moved a motion to suspend seven MPs from his own Congress party and four Telugu Desam Party MPs for disrupting the house. Swaraj said that though she supported the formation of the Telangana state, she didn't approve the way it was created.

Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the house without passing the resolution to suspend the MPs as the chaos reached deafening levels.