After a meeting with Mukherjee where Left leaders insisted that they would not relent on their adjournment motion on price rise, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters that he had assured them that he would discuss the issue with the Prime Minister and "get back to us".
Yechury's senior colleague Basudeb Acharia had given an adjournment notice in the Lok Sabha, while a notice on the issue under Rule 168, which entails voting, would be given by the Left parties in Rajya Sabha tomorrow, the two CPI(M) leaders said.
Yechury said discussions on the price situation have been held in the past two sessions and unanimous resolutions passed earlier "calling upon the government to take all measures to protect the common man".
"But no action has been initiated so far. Food inflation has risen to 12 per cent and the overall inflation rate is escalating exponentially", he said.
As steps to check rising prices, the Left parties are demanding an end to deregulation of petroleum prices, rollback of the hikes in petrol prices, ban on forward and speculative trading on all essential commodities and universalisation of the public distribution system.
"We want the government to respond to these measures that we have been suggesting for long," Yechury said, adding that the Left parties "do not favour disruption of the House but want discussion on these and other important issues."
The opposition's target was Chidambaram, for his alleged links to the 2G spectrum corruption scandal. He was prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha.
As Lok Sabha members assembled, Speaker Meira Kumar made obituary references to ex-members, including former union minister Vasant Sathe, who died in the past few months.
Newly elected member Kuldeep Bishnoi was sworn in.
But when the speaker wanted the question hour taken up, opposition members were on their feet.
The first question of the day was to be answered by Chidambaram, who is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has vowed to boycott.
As Chidambaram got up to table the written reply of a question on Maoist violence, BJP members shouted him down. He sat back silently without even reacting to the opposition's behaviour.
Before the two houses met, Manmohan Singh appealed for peace.
"I sincerely hope that all political parties will realise that we have some very important pieces of legislation which are going to be presented in this session, and our country's sustained development and prosperity demands that many of those bills should be converted as acts of parliament," he said.
The winter session is expected to debate the Lokpal bill, which is aimed at fighting corruption.
"As far as the boycott (of Chidambaram) is concerned, I sincerely hope that the political parties will resist any such temptation. There is virtually no case for a boycott of the type that has been talked about in the newspapers," he told reporters.
The BJP-led combine wants Manmohan Singh to ask Chidambaram to resign.
Chidambaram refused a comment on the opposition strategy and silently walked out of parliament house when journalists sought his reaction.
The first 20 minutes of the day were peaceful as members listened to the speaker expressing grief over the loss of lives in a series of tragedies in India and elsewhere.
But Chidambaram's was not the only issue that rocked the Lok Sabha.
The proposed division of Uttar Pradesh, the demand for Telangana and price rise were also taken up by opposition MPs.
Amid the ruckus, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 and then, as the din continued, for the entire day.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned to mourn the death of two members, Ram Dayal Munda and Silvious Condapen.
CPI-M against boycotting or targeting any individual: Yechury
PTI | 04:11 PM,Nov 22,2011New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) With main opposition BJP boycotting Home Minister P Chidambaram, the CPI(M) today said it was never in favour of targeting individuals but wanted everyone involved in the 2G scam to be investigated. "We have never targeted individuals or have favoured boycott of anyone. Our target is only the policies or acts of omission and commission," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here. He was responding to a question about the Left's stand on the BJP boycotting Chidambaram alleging his involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scandal as then finance minister. "But everybody involved in the 2G scam, even if it goes up to the level of the Prime Minister, should be investigated, their criminality established and action should follow. And the action should be such that it serves as a deterrent," he said. He, however, added, "We are always against boycotting or targeting any individual." Yechury said the Joint Parliamentary Committee, of which he is a member, was meeting on the issue and would arrive at a conclusion.
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