India’s parliament was adjourned for the ninth consecutive day on Monday due to protests by the opposition that show no sign of abating in the last week of the current monsoon session.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign over allegations from the national auditor that his government missed out on billions of dollars of revenue by giving away coalfields. The BJP has regularly disrupted parliament since the last election, with protests over the government’s alleged mis-selling of mobile phone licences wiping out the entire 2010 winter session. In the ongoing monsoon session of parliament, which ends on Saturday, 29 bills were listed for consideration and passing, but only four have been cleared so far, according to the independent PRS Legislative Research organisation. The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sushma Swaraj, has demanded that the government cancel coal licences it granted and that an “independent and fair probe” into the alleged “Coalgate” scam is started. The government has rejected the conditions. The parliament has been deadlocked since August 21 after a report by the official auditor concluded that mining rights were handed out in a process that “lacked transparency and objectivity”.
