Amid Sloganeering, Chidambaram Participates In Question Hour (Lead)

New Delhi: Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday answered questions in the Rajya Sabha even as members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is boycotting him, shouted slogans demanding his ouster over alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The BJP, along with the AIADMK, shouted slogans every time the home minister stood up to reply to a supplementary to a question.

Scenes were created by members of the opposition BJP, with one member from Orissa, Rudra Narayan Pany, walking towards the speaker's podium. He was, however, escorted back to his seat by senior member Ravi Shankar Prasad.

"We don't want a corrupt home minister, Chidambaram should resign," the protesting members shouted.

Another BJP member, Gyan Prakash Pilani, refused to ask his supplementary to a question which was being answered by Chidambaram.

Braving the ruckus, Chidambaram replied to questions marked for his ministry amid slogans demanding his resignation. His deputy, Jitendra Singh, was present in the house.

The minister, however, was barely audible amid constant slogan shouting, to which non-NDA opposition parties objected. The BJP leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"These are important questions of national interest, we should know what the government is doing," Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja said.

Some displeasure was also reflected by members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at Chidambaram. Dissatisfied with his reply, BSP members staged a walk-out. The BSP extends outside support to the government.

An unfazed Chidambaram, however, replied to three questions - on a stampede in Haridwar, crimes against minorities and custodial deaths - and was present in the upper house for the whole length of the Question Hour.

Stating that he was perplexed by "efforts of a section of the house to disturb the Question Hour", an irked Chairman Hamid Ansari asked if the house wanted to continue with the Question Hour.