Protests over corruption bring India's government to standstill

For nearly two weeks, opposition MPs have halted nearly all legislative work in a repeat of their winter session protests, weakening Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's already embattled government and its push to turn India into a major global power.

The sense of political despair was heightened last week when Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi - seen as the nation's top powerbroker - left the country for medical treatment for an undisclosed illness. She named her son to help run the party in her absence, further undermining Mr Singh by rekindling speculation Rahul Gandhi was being groomed to take his place.

Mr Singh had been viewed as a man of uncommon integrity as he led the ruling coalition to an unexpectedly strong re-election victory in 2009 that many hoped would give him a mandate for further economic reforms. However, his government was quickly beset by scandals over the shady sale of the mobile telephone spectrum and last year's Commonwealth Games, which together lost the country as much as $40 billion, according to government auditors.

"In the last 26 months since the government took over, there has been little or no governance," said Omkar Goswami, an economist and corporate adviser who serves on the boards of companies such as Infosys and Cairn India.

"So many scams have surfaced in the past year, that no official wants to take a decision; no minister wants to stand up and be counted."

Indians have grown weary of both Mr Singh and parliament. A poll by an Indian think-tank that was published this week in the Hindu newspaper showed 60 per cent of respondents think the government is "somewhat" or "very" corrupt.

MPs were pegged as the most corrupt by 43 per cent of those polled. While most respondents still viewed Mr Singh as honest - only 9 per cent said he was personally corrupt - 31 per cent said he has done little to control corruption, and 33 per cent said he should be replaced, as opposed to 22 per cent who said he should stay on.

Protests by opposition MPs washed out parliament's winter session, though they managed to allow the budget to pass during the spring budget session.

There had been strong hopes for the so-called monsoon session - the third of parliament's three annual sessions - when it began last week.

It was expected to take up an ambitious food security bill aimed at eliminating hunger in a country where 50 per cent of the children are plagued by malnutrition.It was also to debate a land acquisition bill to give better compensation to farmers whose land is taken for development, and an anti-corruption law that would establish a government ombudsman.

Little work has been done as both houses of parliament again erupted in chaos, this time over opposition demands that New Delhi's top elected official, Sheila Dikshit, resign over her role supervising the Commonwealth Games.

Each day, just after the speakers of both houses of parliament open proceedings, opposition MPs stream into the well of the chamber and shout anti-government slogans, drowning out officials who try to go about their business.

On Wednesday, lower house speaker Meira Kumar donned headphones to try to hear ministers read their responses to parliamentary queries.

After a few minutes, Mrs Kumar adjourned the session. Yesterday, the protesters took a rare day off and allowed work to proceed.

The din in the house is mirrored by street rallies outside parliament by supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and smaller regional parties.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitely demanded the government immediately hold a parliamentary debate on corruption.

"The prime minister has given no answers.

"No answers can be given by him. But we will push the government till it responds on the many corruption issues that we have raised," Mr Jaitely told reporters.