Unruly scenes in RS over Jaitley's phone tapping charges

Unruly scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday after the opposition members raised the issue of alleged phone tapping of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley, leading to a brief adjournment of the House.

As soon as the House met for the day, Naresh Goyal (Samajwadi Party) raised the matter, terming it as a serious issue, and demanded a reply from the government. He was joined by members from the Bahujan Samaj Party and Shivanand Tiwari (Janata Dal-United) who too condemned the incident. Some other members were seen raising slogans.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla's assurance that the ‘serious’ matter was being investigated since it related to Leader of the Opposition did not pacify the members who demanded a reply from Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

"We have taken note of it. Delhi Police is examining the matter...people have been arrested and the leader of the opposition is aware of it," Shukla said. Amid commotion, Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House for five minutes.

When the House reassembled, Goyal insisted that the home minister make a statement despite a clear ruling from the chair that the programme for the day has been fixed and no addition would be allowed to what Shukla has said.

Amid din, Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) demanded that the home minister should tell the names of those whose numbers were being tapped. He was also joined by D Raja (Communist Party of India) who too sought Shinde's response.

The home minister intervened at this point, saying a statement has already been made by Shukla on behalf of the government.