Voting on women’s reservation bill deferred

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

New Delhi, March 8: The historic bill providing for 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies was on Monday moved in the Rajya Sabha for consideration amid unprecedented pandemonium with some SP members trying to attack Chairman Hamid Ansari.

SP and RJD members created unruly scenes since morning, forcing repeated adjournments of the House but the government, banking on the support from BJP and the Left, appeared determined to get the bill passed on the International Women’s Day today irrespective of what the opponents did.

After two adjournments since the House met for the day, when the Rajya Sabha re-assembled for the third time at 2 PM, Law Minister Veerappa Moily moved the bill for consideration, triggering unprecedented scenes.

Nand Kishore Yadav and Kamal Akhtar of SP led the combined offensive of his party and RJD. Yadav tried to attack the Chairman by attempting to climb on to the podium.

He uprooted the mike and threw the stationery placed on Ansari’s table even as some other members were seen threatening to reach Ansari’s podium.

The security attendants immediately swung into action and shielded the Chairman to prevent the agitated members from climbing on the table.

Akhtar, meanwhile, climbed the table of the Rajya Sabha reporters in front of the Chairman, chanting slogans against the bill, while some members, including RJD’s Rajniti Prasad, tore the copy of the bill and threw pieces towards the chair. Within minutes, Ansari adjourned the House till 1500 hours.   After the House was adjourned, engineers immediately fixed the mike.

 Apparently fearing repeat of such scenes, the Rajya Sabha staff cleared the tables of the Secretary General as also the House Reporters of items like pen sets and paper weights. An electronic watch kept on the Secretary General’s table was also removed.  Before the Rajya Sabha reassembled at 3 PM, Marshals were brought into the House and lined up on the two flanks of the Chairman’s table.

P J Kurien, one of the members on the panel of vice- chairmen, occupied the Chair only to announce adjournment of the House till 4 PM.  He again adjourned the House till 6 PM when it reassembled.  Significantly, a number of women members of the Lok Sabha were present in the visitor’s gallery of the Rajya Sabha to witness the proceedings.

They included Deepa Dasgupta, Girja Vyas, Supriya Sule and Meenakshi Natarajan.

The decision to defer the voting on the bill till Tuesday was taken after the Prime Minister met BJP and Left leaders who insisted on a discussion on the bill before it was put to vote. It was decided to defer the voting till Tuesday, though Congress high command was in favour of getting the bill passed on Monday itself.

The Prime Minister also met Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad, the leading lights of the anti-Women’s Bill, and during the discussion the two Yadav heavyweights demanded that the bill be reintroduced only after giving reservation within reservation to women belonging to OBCs, Muslims and Dalits. This was not accepted by the Prime Minister.

There was impasse in the   Lok Sabha on Monday as RJD, SP and some JD(U) members did not allow the House to carry on with its proceedings from Question Hour onwards.  SP, RJD, JD(U) members repeatedly trooped  into the well to stall the proceedings.

The House saw three adjournments on the same issue before the Chair called it a day as members opposed to the bill remained unrelenting.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav led their slogan-shouting members into the well each time the House was called to order.

At one time, SP member Shailendra Kumar tore some legislative documents and threw pieces of paper into the well, even as the Chair took up the listed business.

Lone member of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi too joined the protest, raising slogans against the bill and rushed to the well.

As pandemonium continued, the Chair adjourned the House for the day.Similar scenes were witnessed throughout the day, as the opponents of the bill in its present form demanded a quota within the quota for OBCs, SCs, STs and minorities.

 

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Women’s Bill: SP, RJD withdraw support from UPA govt

New Delhi, March 8: SP and RJD members today withdrew support from the UPA government, after strongly opposing the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.

However, the withdrawal is not going to make any impact on the government as they are not part of it.

Earlier, SP, BSP and RJD members today strongly opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, with one of them even trying to climb the Speaker’s podium, leading to adjournment of the House till lunch.

The Bill, slated to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, created storm in the Lok Sabha soon after Speaker Meira Kumar welcomed a Croatian delegation and read out a reference on International Women’s Day.

The moment Kumar called for Question Hour, SP, BSP and RJD members trooped into the Well demanding quotas for OBC, Dalit and Muslim women within the proposed law to reserve 33 per cent seats in Parliament and State assemblies for the fair sex.

The Speaker refused to adjourn the House and carried on with the Question Hour. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav gestured his party members to move forward and himself marched to the Well from the side of the treasury benches. Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) and Lalu Prasad and Umashanker Singh (both RJD) followed Yadav.

At this moment, Mithilesh Kumar (SP) tried to climb the table placed in front of the Speaker prompting Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to request Yadav to control his members.

On the SP chief’s directive, the members retreated a bit but stayed put in the Well and continued to raise slogans.

The Speaker then adjourned the House till 12:00 noon.