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NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP)

India's parliament was in uproar Tuesday when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee postponed a statement he was due to make about a former federal minister allegedly accepting a bribe, reports said.

Vajpayee was expected to comment on charges against former junior minister for environment Dilip Singh Judeo who quit last month after video footage showed him taking cash from a businessman named Rahul seeking a mining contract. The minister was seen touching the currency to his forehead and saying: "Money isn't God but swear on God, it's no less than God." Judeo quit soon after the video footage was aired but main opposition Congress seized on the issue at election rallies ahead of polls to four states on December 1.

As soon as speaker Manohar Joshi told MPs that Vajpayee would make a statement on Judeo on Wednesday, opposition MPs led by the Congress and the Left parties were on their feet protesting.

"It is your decision which is being ignored by the government," Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said.

"This shows that parliament is not being taken seriously," said Communist Party of India Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee.

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