New Delhi: A walkout by major Opposition parties in Lok Sabha today (Dec 18, 2003) as part of their boycott of Defence Minister George Fernandes following the Tehelka expose earned the wrath of ruling coalition, with Speaker Manohar Joshi asking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to finalise a draft on "some issue" and give it to the Opposition to resolve the matter.

"The only thing they (Opposition) want is to have a discussion on some issue… The ruling parties especially the BJP, has the draft. If it is amended and approved, it can be put up before them," Joshi said after members of BJP, Samata Party and Shiv Sena protested the Opposition walkout when Fernandes rose to reply to a question during Question Hour.

The Speaker, however, did not elaborate on what the draft was all about or what he meant by "some issue".

Earlier, as soon as Fernandes rose to reply to a question on procurement procedure for armed forces, members of Congress, Left parties and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) walked out of the House.

When V K Malhotra (BJP) protested and asked "is this not a matter of privilege", Joshi again said, "The draft is with your party, give it to the Opposition."

Referring to the demand for a privilege motion against the Opposition, the Speaker said, "The privilege notice (by Prabhunath Singh against Opposition leaders yesterday) is not before me at this stage."

Joshi said Deputy Speaker P M Sayeed had yesterday ruled that the privilege notice was not in order and Singh's speech was expunged.

After Fernandes replied to the question, BJP's Kirit Somaiya said Congress member G Putta Swamy Gowda "should be given protection", as he had asked a question to the Defence Minister and action could be taken against him by his party for "disobeying" its directives.

Gowda was not present in the House.

Somaiya said if Gowda had remained absent, he should not have asked the question.

To this, the Speaker said, "If any member seeks protection from the Chair, he should make a complaint. No such complaint has been made to me by the member (Gowda)."

Prabhunath Singh (Samata) had yesterday moved a privilege notice against leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi, Communist party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Somnath Chatterjee and RJD's Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on boycott of Fernandes on the Tehelka expose.

Ever since the re-induction of Fernandes as Defence Minister two years back, Congress, Left Parties and RJD have been boycotting him in both the Houses on the ground that he could not get into the Government without being exonerated by the probe into the Tehelka expose on fictitious defence deals.

PTI