NEW DELHI: BJP and Shiv Sena members brought the Lok Sabha to a standstill on Thursday morning over a book, Haqeeqat, published in Rajasthan that reportedly denigrated Hindu deities even as Left and Congress leaders later questioned the timing of raising the matter in the immediate aftermath of the Varanasi blasts.

The House was adjourned after Congress, Left and RJD members objected to the manner in which it was being raised. But the BJP was in no mood to let the matter die as Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, said outside the House, “We’ll wait for the government’s reaction to decide on the next step”.

The matter was raised by Srichand Kripalani, BJP MP from Kota who said the author had deliberately hurt Hindu sentiments and should be banned. The MP demanded a countrywide ban on the book, the arrest of its author and publisher and the closure of the publishing institution which he claimed was involved in “anti-national activities”. Kripalani even tried to table the book, which was a Hindi translation of the English original, but was disallowed by the Speaker.