NEW DELHI: The oil-for-food scam rocked Parliament on Friday with Opposition members objecting to the "leak" in the media of the R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority report allegedly "within minutes" of its submission to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. They said the report should have been tabled in Parliament as it was in session.

Both Houses were adjourned after the members disrupted question hour to raise the matter. For the second consecutive day the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the entire day, within eight minutes of two sittings. The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice before the Chair called it a day at 3.30 p.m. without transacting any business.

In the Rajya Sabha, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, the Telugu Desam and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said they would move a privilege motion against the Government and the Prime Minister.

The former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, who was named a non-contractual beneficiary in the Volcker Committee Report on the scam, was present.

In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, expressing his strong resentment over the report being made public before it was officially tabled, asked the Government to explain how the "leak" took place and said the matter should be probed. He, however, disallowed any discussion on the report until it was tabled. "We cannot allow any discussion on the media reports."

Government denial

Responding, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said the Government had taken a serious note of his observations and would do the needful. He denied that it had "leaked" the report.

Raising the matter, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani said the "leak"came as a surprise as the House was in session. "The whole nation is distressed over the issue, particularly when the Congress has been exonerated [by the Pathak panel]," he said, leading to an uproar with members of that party pointing out that the contents of the report were still not known and it was wrong to comment on it.

Violation of norms: CPI

Communist Party of India member Gurudas Dasgupta said the leak was "unfortunate" and in violation of parliamentary norms.

"There appears to be an `unusual coincidence' between the submission of the report and its leak within minutes. The Government owed an explanation," he said. He was, however, happy that the Finance Minister had said the Enforcement Directorate would conduct an investigation and that the law would take its course.

While Mohan Singh (Samajwadi Party) and Roopchand Pal (Communist Party of India-Marxist) demanded a high-level probe into the "leak", Devender Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), K. Yerrannaidu (TDP), Ananth Geete (Shiv Sena) and Brij Kishore Tripathi (Biju Janata Dal) described it as "deliberate". Mr. Singh said the leak amounted to contempt of Parliament.

In the Rajya Sabha, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha sought suspension of the question hour to raise the matter.

Jairam Ramesh and Rao Inderjit of the Congress countered him, leading to sharp exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition members. In the din, Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was heard asking the members whether they wanted the House to run. When the agitated members continued to trade charges, he adjourned the House till noon.

Raise slogans

As soon as it met again, BJP members entered the well, raising slogans against the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi. The Treasury benches responded, chanting "mole, mole" — a reference to Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh's failure to name a mole in the Prime Minister's Office that he had mentioned in his recent book. Within minutes, Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan adjourned the House for the day.

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