NEW DELHI, June 9: India's opposition shut down parliament for the second straight day on Wednesday but kept the house open long enough for it to elect a deputy speaker. Both houses closed hours before their lunch break after opposition MPs shouted slogans protesting the inclusion of ministers facing criminal charges in the new government.

The government tried to change the topic by starting a debate on a media report that alleged the former Bharatiya Janata Party government had stalled on a military request for more airpower during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

But before the military issue could be discussed, the Hindu nationalists brought parliament to a halt with the commotion over scandal-tainted ministers. The upper house shut within minutes, but the lower house managed to get its main item of business completed: the election of Charanjit Singh Atwal as its deputy speaker.

Mr Atwal is leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a regional party in East Punjab allied with the Hindu nationalists. Traditionally an opposition supporter gets the deputy post while the government chooses the speaker.

Parliament on Friday elected as parliament speaker Somnath Chatterjee, the first communist to hold the position. The communists are key backers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.

Atwal is a Sikh, as is Manmohan Singh, the first Indian prime minister from a religious minority. Angry exchanges are common in the Indian parliament, where proceedings are often stalled for days by protests.

At least three members of Singh's cabinet face criminal charges including embezzlement and rape. None of the ministers has been convicted, which would disqualify them from public office.

Ruling party lawmakers counter that the previous government also had ministers implicated in legal proceedings including the deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani. Mr Advani was investigated for allegedly rallying Hindu zealots to tear down the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, but a court declined to charge him. -AFP