NEW DELHI: Sitting all by himself in
Lok Sabha well after the House was adjourned for the second time on Wednesday, BJP veteran
Lal Krishna Advani addressed an empty House, demanding to know what was happening, and "will the House run or not?"
Advani's comments followed Lok Sabha Speaker
Sumitra Mahajan adjourning the House for a second time after
Congress MPs disrupted proceedings and demanded an apology from Prime Minister
Narendra Modi for his allegations of conspiracy against former PM Manmohan Singh.
Though it is not unusual for MPs to linger on and continue their discussions after the House is adjourned, Advani remained in his front row seat for more than half an hour, even after the opposition and treasury benches had emptied out.
Cutting a lonely figure in a House that accommodates 543 members, the 90-year-old eventually hailed a senior member of the Lok Sabha staff and asked him, "Will the House run or not?" A clarification that the House had been adjourned, however, did not seem to have convinced Advani. Visibly upset over the repeated disruptions and the failure of the House to transact business, he said, "But there has to be some solution to this."
The former deputy PM, who has been critical of disruptions in parliamentary proceedings and has often embarrassed the government by his assertions in this regard, asked the Lok Sabha staff whether there would be another adjournment later in the day. "Do you think I should come back in the afternoon?" he asked as the staff member conveyed his inability to advise the leader.
Some minutes later, after reading the notes on the table and gathering his papers, Advani walked out of Lok Sabha around 1pm.
