Rajya Sabha witnessed a total washout on Tuesday as the entire opposition launched a relentless attack on the government over the pending vacancies in various national commissions for minorities, SCs, STs and OBCs.

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Because of the continuous pandemonium, the Upper House not only failed to take up the Question Hour but also the pending discussion and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's reply on the Finance Bill, 2017 discussion that was listed for Tuesday.

Ruling out a discussion under Rule 267, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien allowed the opposition members to raise the matter in zero hour.

Picking up from where he had left on Monday, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party raised the issue during the Zero Hour, attacking the government for keeping posts in various statutory commissions vacant.

He also accused the government for changing the name of the OBC commission under a design to nullify the castes listed as Backwards by the Mandal commission and decide afresh which are backward castes and which are not.

He also accused the government for planning to mete out similar fate to the SC & ST Commission.

BSP supremo Mayawati questioned the government's intention for keeping nearly all the key posts vacant in all the statutory commissions.

In a per-determined manner, the opposition got together when deputy chairman P J Kurien allowed senior BJP minister Venkaiah Naidu to intervene and clarify.

"What had they done during their regime? We are ready to place all the facts before the people. These people want to make it a political issue... The people have rejected them in the elections. They want to misuse the forum of the House...," said Naidu amid the din.

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, who also spoke amid the din, said the delay in appointments to the statutory commissions was due to the Model Code enforced because of elections in five states recently.

He said that in 2007 and 2010, when Congress-led government was in power, there was a delay of three and five months, respectively, in filling up such vacancies.

The SC Commission chairmanship fell vacant on October 31 last year, the Minister said.

The unrelenting opposition members, however, did not allow the Minister to speak despite repeated requests by Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien.

The 'eventful' proceedings of the House were also seen by the members of a Parliamentary delegation from Namibia, led by Speaker of the National Assembly Peter H Katjavivi.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the issue was very important and required a discussion as members have already given notices.

He sought to know whether the government would commit itself to appoint the chairmen and members in all the commissions within a week and whether an immediate discussion on the issue is allowed or not.

"Never has it happened in the country that all three commissions are headless and they are without members too. The SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities account for 80 to 85 per cent of total population and the various commissions implement the schemes for their welfare and upliftment," said Azad.

While the House saw three adjournments before lunch break, including two in the Question Hour, there were two more adjournments post lunch after which it was finally adjourned for the day at 3.10 pm.