India's opposition parties have bitterly criticised the government for its failure to put the controversial anti-corruption Lokpal bill to a vote in the upper house of parliament.
But the government insists that the opposition BJP was responsible for the bill not being passed.
The house was adjourned amid chaos after a debate stretched to midnight.
The BJP said the government had "orchestrated" the chaos as it was not sure it could pass the bill.
But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters that if the BJP wanted the bill to have been passed, "it could have been passed without any problem".
"But they were not willing to co-operate. They would rather see the nation fail than the government succeed."
The Lokpal bill gives an independent ombudsman powers to prosecute politicians and civil servants.
The bill passed the lower house on Tuesday. It needed to be passed in the upper house on Thursday in order to become law.
The bill will now have to be revised and presented again.
The government said it had respected the constitution with the adjournment at midnight and that the people of India would know who was responsible for the failure to reach a vote.
But the BJP immediately called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign, saying his government had shown it was not fit to rule.
"The government has lost all moral right to continue in power. It should resign immediately," opposition leader Arun Jaitely told reporters.
"The [ruling] Congress [party] was never serious and committed to bring a strong Lokpal. It knew that it would never be able to get the bill passed in the lower house, so it choreographed the entire drama of debate which continued till midnight," he said.
Posts
