NEW DELHI: The budget session of Parliament ended on Tuesday on a full-scale confrontation between the ruling benches and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which threatened to consider bringing a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

The issue that divided them was "admonishment" of the former Lok Sabha Secretary-General, Subhash C. Kashyap, for breach of privilege. The House adopted the admonishment resolution by voice vote.

By the end of an action-packed day all four BJP members — Kishan Singh Sangwan, Rajendrasinh Rana, Ananth Kumar Hegde and Virendra Kumar — had written to the Speaker, saying they were resigning from the Committee of Privileges.

The BJP lost the sympathy of most allies in the National Democratic Alliance. Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav told The Hindu: "On this issue we do not agree with the BJP at all. That man Kashyap speaks a lot of nonsense. He ought to be punished."

A one-time ally, K. Yerrannaidu of the Telugu Desam made it clear that he favoured exemplary punishment to Dr. Kashyap, who had "unfairly and irresponsibly" attributed motives to the Speaker and committed a breach of privilege.

Appalling "arrogance"

A large number of MPs across the political divide were appalled at the "arrogance" Dr. Kashyap showed when he appeared before the committee and admitted that he had not cared to ascertain facts before airing his views on a television channel.

(The privilege notice given by Hannan Mollah of the CPI-M said Dr. Kashyap, in the August 4, 2005 interview, cast serious aspersions on the Speaker and imputed a political reason to his rejection of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee's notice to raise an issue.)

The drama began on Monday night when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi informed BJP deputy leader V.K. Malhotra that a resolution seeking to admonish Dr. Kashyap would be moved in the House on Tuesday. Mr. Malhotra apparently pleaded with him that the matter be dropped after a plain condemnation and that Dr. Kashyap be not called to the bar of the House. That was accepted and the resolution was redrafted and included in Tuesday's agenda.

However, at the BJP parliamentary party meeting in the morning, the Opposition decided to take up the Kashyap issue aggressively. Later, Mr. Malhotra conveyed to Mr. Chatterjee, at a meeting of party leaders, that "there was a general feeling among his party MPs that the Speaker was partisan and the party should move a no-confidence motion against him."

The Speaker challenged the BJP to move the motion. "Let them get rid of me," he told reporters here.

At a press conference, Mr. Dasmunsi said Mr. Malhotra admitted, at the leaders' meeting in the Speaker's chamber, that he had asked that the resolution on Dr. Kashyap be modified. It was done. In spite of this concession, the BJP decided to raise slogans in the House and force adjournments.

While the BJP charged that a draft report of the Committee of Privileges was changed and that the party members were not aware of the changes, Mr. Dasmunsi asserted that the panel had the right to amend or modify the report until it was presented to the House. He said Mr. Malhotra was aware that the report was tabled on May 19, "when not a single BJP MP, not even the MPs who were members of the committee, objected. The entire protest seems to be an afterthought when the RSS came into the picture and put pressure on the BJP to save Mr. Kashyap."

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