Women's Bill tabled amid bedlam in LS
Tribune News Service and Agencies

NEW DELHI, Dec 14 (PTI) — Amid unruly scenes and a spate of adjournments, the controversial Constitution Amendment Bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lower House and state assemblies was introduced in the Lok Sabha today.

As agitated Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members continued their tirade against the legislation, Mr H. Yerran Naidu, Presiding Officer, adjourned the House for the day more than an hour ahead of the schedule.

Raising slogans, the members who were demanding quota for other backward classes (OBCs) and minorities in the 84th Constitution Amendment Bill repeatedly stormed into the well of the House stalling the proceedings.

Quoting rules, the members complained that procedures had been violated by the government while introducing the Bill.

Even before Law Minister M. Thambi Durai got up to introduce the measure, the members were in the well raising slogans like "mahila bill wapas lo" (take back the Women’s reservation Bill).

As soon as Mr Durai rose to introduce the Bill in the midst of pandemonium, members from the Treasury Benches, the Left and the Congress thumped their desks to greet the measure.

Soon after the storm over Ms Mamata Banerjee’s issue subsided with Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi condemning Friday’s clash between her and SP member Daroga Prasad Saroj and referring the matter to the Privileges Committee, the SP, The RJD and the BSP members stormed into the well, protesting against the introduction of the measure.

The SP and the RJD members were up in arms against Ms Banerjee’s "misbehaviour" with Mr Saroj and jointly gave a notice of a breach of the privilege to the Speaker, demanding the termination of her membership.

In retaliation, the Trinamool Congress gave a similar notice to the Speaker seeking action against Mr Saroj for "hurling blows" on Ms Banerjee.

Trouble began soon after the House assembled this morning with SP and RJD members firm on their demand for action against Ms Banerjee. After five minutes, the House was adjourned.

When the House reassembled at 11 p.m., the plea by Mr Yerran Naidu, who was in the Chair, to maintain calm went unheeded forcing him to adjourn the proceedings for another hour.

As the House met again at 2 p.m., the Speaker gave his ruling on Friday’s incident and said he had sought a time-bound report from the Privileges Committee.

In the midst of continuing turmoil, the Law Minister introduced the controversial Bill.

There was no let-up in the unrelenting attitude of the members opposed to the legislation and the House witnessed two more adjournments before the Chair called it a day.

There was jubilation among the Treasury Benches after the introduction of the Bill and several members, including Ms Mamata Banerjee and Mrs Sushma Swaraj, were seen congratulating the others.

It was understandable as there had been a big question mark over the introduction of the Bill ever since the BJP-led coalition came to power in March this year. The Government’s attempt to introduce the measure in the Budget session of Parliament had failed when two RLM members snatched the copies of the Bill from the Law Minister.

Earlier, members of the RJD-SP combine and the RLM, made known their intentions on the Bill by staging a noisy demonstration in front of Parliament House. They demanded the inclusion of the OBC, the Dalits and the Muslims in the Bill.

In the interval when the House was adjourned, the Speaker, held wide ranging discussions with leaders of various parties, including the Congress, and tried to resolve the imbroglio arising out of last Friday’s incident.

Leaders of the RLM were understood to have sought action against Ms Banerjee for her alleged assault on an SP member. However, they finally reached a consensus that the complaint against Ms Banerjee be referred to the Privileges Committee.

When the House met again for the third time during the day, the Speaker began the proceedings with a statement on the incident of December 11.

He recalled that an acrimonious situation arose in the House on that day in the context of the bandh by several trade unions and the Bill

Mr Balayogi said the behaviour of the members was not merely a violation of the established rules of procedure of the House, but was also a serious breach of the solemn pledge made by the entire House during its special golden jubilee session.

He said the incident was also prima facie in the nature of a gross violation of the privilege of the House. He said he had also received certain privilege notices from members.

The Speaker said he would refer the notices to the Privileges Committee with a direction to give a time-bound report.

Soon after completing his statement, he directed the House to take up the listed business. The introduction of the women’s Bill was 19th on the list.

Ministers then started introducing the business listed against their names. However, alert RLM members got up and demanded to know the fate of the women’s Bill. Their rushing to the well of the House once again, however, did not help as the Speaker ruled that whatever they said would not go on record. Amidst the din, the entire business was rushed through. Thereafter Mr Balayogi adjourned the House again for 45 minutes.

As protests by SP and RJD members continued, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.

The agitated members had trooped into the well of the House demanding that they be heard on the violation of procedures at the introductory stage.

They were supported by Mr Arif Mohammad Khan (BSP) and Mr G.M. Banatwala of the (IUML).

Mr K. Yerran Naidu, who was in the Chair, did not allow the procedural issues to be raised on the ground that the Speaker had already given his ruling on the subject.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana said the Chair’s ruling could not be questioned and members should have raised their objections earlier and not as an "afterthought".

As protesting members made a second foray into the well raising slogans like "niyam virodhi sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (a government not following rules would not be allowed to run), Mr Naidu adjourned the House till tomorrow, an hour and 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Undemocratic, says Mulayam
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 14 — The convener of the RLM, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, today charged the government with adopting "undemocratic" means to introduce the women’s Bill in the Lok Sabha and said his party would take the issue to people.

The introduction of the Bill was, however, welcomed by the BJP which described it as a "historic victory for democracy" while the Congress said it was in favour of amending the Bill to provide for a sub quota for the other backward classes.

Addressing newspersons minutes after the measure was introduced, Mr Yadav said it was perhaps for the first time in the history of Parliament that a Constitution Amendment Bill had been introduced without discussing its draft. This was "undemocratic" and would set a bad precedent for state assemblies.

He said the Bill had several loopholes and would increase inequality in society.

The proposal to rotate the reserved constituencies for women would discourage MPs from nursing their constituencies as they would not be sure of contesting the same seat again. This would also remove the fear of the electorate and lead to bad governance, Mr Yadav said.

He said instead of the Election Commission deciding the constituencies to be reserved for women, the choice should be left to individual parties.

The RLM leader said his party was not against the Bill but was opposed to injustice to women belonging to the other backward classes. He demanded that there should be reservation for the women belonging to the OBCs.

Expressing distress over the support lent by the Left and the Congress to the Bill, Mr Yadav said the parties should have taken the RLM into their confidence.

He said he had not held any talks with Congress leaders as they were bound by the diktat of the party high command and had no say in the matter. However, some of them had admitted in private that they were not aware of the complications arising out of the tabling of the Bill.

There was no plan of SP or RJD members to resign their seats in Parliament as apart from the women’s Bill they had a common stand on several other issues like the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill. "Our resigning the seats will only help the ruling party and we don’t want to do that at any cost" he added.

The BJP, however, said by introducing the Bill, the party had fulfilled its promise made to the nation.

Party vice-president Madan Lal Khurana said "this is a historic victory for democracy and women". He hoped that the Bill would be passed soon. Mr Khurana said if there was unanimity on any amendment, the government would accept that too.

He said the BJP-led government was not anti-OBC. He however, added that the party was opposed to reservation on the basis of religion.

The Congress spokesman, Mr Ajit Jogi, hailed the introduction of the legislation, saying the party had always been committed to granting reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies.

He said the Congress would favour a consensus on the inclusion of a sub quota and would initiate a dialogue with all parties in this regard.

Mr Jogi said his party would support any government initiative to provide for a sub quota for the OBCs in the Bill.

Senior Janata Dal leader Ramvilas Paswan said his party would move an amendment seeking reservation for women belonging to the OBCs, the minorities, the SCs and the STs in the Bill. He said the decision to move the amendment was taken at the Janata Dal’s Parliamentary Party meeting here.

The party was also in favour of legislation for job reservation for the minorities, including Muslims, on the pattern of Karnataka.