BJP divided over Women’s Bill

The Bill was being discussed in the party and she had expressed her view, she said. She had also raised the demand in Parliament. However, Bharti was at pains to clarify that she would abide by the party’s decision on this issue.

On Monday, the president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha, Mridula Sinha, had categorically said that the party was not in favour of caste-based reservation.

Party spokesman Yashwant Sinha said the party was yet to arrive at a consensus on the subject.

Meanwhile, Janata Dal working president Sharad Yadav gave a new twist to the Women’s Reservation Bill by emphasising the division of seats reserved for women into four categories — for upper castes, backward castes, Dalits and the minorities.

“Seats should be apportioned among them in proportion to their respective population,” he asserted.

He also asked the political parties not to issue any whip for their members before the Bill was taken up for voting.

“Let the MPs be given a free hand. A true picture on the stand adopted on the contentious issue by various parties will be known only after their members are allowed to vote according to their conscience,” he said while addressing mediapersons here this evening. The JD working president’s assertion lends a new dimension to the ongoing debate on the proposed Bill.

He, at the same, welcomed a national debate on the issue, as suggested by Prime Minister I K Gujral while tabling on May 17 the motion for consideration of the Women’s Reservation Bill. In an angry outburst in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the motion, Yadav saw in it (without a quota for the OBCs) a pernicious attempt to change the complexion of the House, which had 280 MPs from the middle castes.

As he tried to hammer down the point again during the press conference held this evening, he entered into a heated arguement with the women journalists.

“How many of you hail from the backward castes ?” he asked angrily when some of them sought to know the reasons behind his dogged opposition to the Bill. “It is a conspiracy hatched by the upper castes to deny the backward castes their Constitutional rights,” he alleged, while reiterating the charges levelled in the House on May 16.