Furore in Indian Parliament over price rises

New Delhi - Opposition lawmakers mounted protests and disrupted proceedings in India's Parliament Wednesday over rising food prices and inflation. India's inflation rate soared to 4.8 per cent in November, its highest level in 10 months, driven by a sharp increase in the prices of essential food items.

Prices of essential food items climbed by nearly 17 per cent in November compared to a year earlier because of drought and floods in India and global price rises.

There were protests in both houses of Parliament soon after proceedings began Wednesday morning.

Lawmakers from communist parties, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as regional parties gathered near Lok Sabha [lower house] Speaker Meira Kumar's podium shouting slogans including "Contain inflation" and "The government should be changed."

Despite Kumar's requests, the protests continued, leading her to adjourn the house twice before finally adjourning until Thursday.

"We will continue our struggle till the government amends its wrong policies and controls inflation," Brinda Karat, from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said.

"We will take the issue to the streets. The government has to change its policies, or else we will change this anti-people government," Mulayam Singh, chief of the Samajwadi Party, told reporters.

Over the past few days, the opposition has criticized the government for the price rises and accused it of economic mismanagement.

The BJP has blamed the government for not taking any steps to help 4 million people in India who lost their jobs due to the global recession.

"Prices are a major area of concern. We shall have to address it and we are doing it," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.