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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Agitated opposition members forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha during zero hour on Monday with their insistence that five central ministers whom they accused of conspiring to build a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya in defiance of the courts should explain their conduct to the House.
Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed adjourned the House till 1400 IST when Samajwadi Party members Akhilesh Singh, Ramjilal Suman and Rashid Alvi and Republican Party of India member Ramdas Athawale shouted "Atal Bihari Vajpayee sharm karo" [be ashamed, Vajpayee] and "Alpasankhyak-virodhi sarkar nahin chalegi, nahin chalegi [this anti-minority government will not work]".
Priyaranjan Dasmunshi (Congress) and Leftists Ajoy Chakraborty and Basudeb Acharya alleged that the five ministers -- Ved Prakash Goel, Sripad Naik, Jayanti Mehta, Eknath Vikhe-Patil and Annasaheb Patil -- had attended a BJP member's dinner party and allegedly conspired to construct a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Dasmunshi asserted that despite Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's recent assurance to the Lok Sabha that the government would abide by the court's verdict on the dispute, these five ministers and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members had "hatched a plot" to go ahead with their temple plans.
"These ministers should come to the House to explain their conduct and apologise," Dasmunshi said, pointing out that the issue was "extremely important for the secular foundation of the country". He added that since the prime minister is in Japan, the home minister should come to the House and explain the government's stand on the ministers' activities.
Chakraborty said the country's secular fabric was being endangered by the VHP, which was colluding with five central ministers to ignore the court verdict on Ayodhya.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party member Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that while he agreed with Shivraj Patil, deputy leader of the Congress in the House, that it was the speaker's prerogative to call members to raise various issues, he did not agree with him on Ayodhya.
Akhilesh Singh, Suman and Alvi then started shouting anti-government slogans. Sayeed appealed to them to resume their seats. But when the agitated members ignored his pleas, he adjourned the House.
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