The Hindu : All listed speakers absent in RS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2002

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National

All listed speakers absent in RS
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 18. The Rajya Sabha was virtually threatened with early adjournment for the day today when over 10 speakers listed for participating in the debate on the Budget were absent.

Adik Shirodkar was in the chair, and he began reading out the names one by one - Rama Shankar Kaushik (Samajwadi Party), C. Ramachandraiah (TDP), Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena), K. Rehman Khan (Congress), Lalitbhai Mehta (BJP), Gandhi Azad (BSP), and the list went on and on - none of them were present. Clearly, the problem cut across party lines.

It was the Minister for Petroleum, Ram Naik, who came to the rescue of the House as he was there to talk about the Budget and also formally announce the lower price of cooking gas. And a signal sent out to him to continue saved the situation. The House could continue till 5.30 p.m.

In fact a worried Parliamentary Affairs Minister had to rush out of his office to make sure that the House was not adjourned by 4.30 p.m.

It seemed that the crisis arose as several speakers listed for participating in the debate on the Budget absented themselves after letting it be known that they would prefer to speak tomorrow, when perhaps they thought they could get better media coverage as today a number of ``important leaders'' had already spoken.

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