Finance Minister P Chidambaram faced a near empty house as the entire opposition led by BJP staged a walkout which was followed by Left allies, SP and coalition partner RJD.
Chidambaram was constantly interrupted while responding to two-day-long debate on the price rise. Even some Congress members including Harisinh Chavda, Manvendra Singh, Chandrashekhar Dubey and Rajesh Mishra criticised the government vehemently, prompting Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs B K Handique to caution them against interruption.
Cutting across party lines, member after member attacked the government saying there was no control on spiraling prices of all essential commodities with speculators and black marketers having a field day in the "absence of any action" by government.
Chidambaram sought to defend the government saying a combination of fiscal, monetary and supply actions were underway and assuage their feelings saying prices would be brought under control.
At the same time, he put the onus on state governments for not taking action to curb prices and black marketing by invoking the Essential Commodities Act, repealed in 2002, after taking permission from the Centre.
