Brawl in LS over women8217;s quota

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called it a sad day the like of which he hadn8217;t seen before.

For a long time the Lok Sabha looked more like a Chandni Chowk street drama as rival members slugged it out after the snatching of papers from the Speaker8217;s table and the Bill from the hands of Law Minister Thambidurai just ashe was going to introduce it at 5.30 pm.

The protestors8217; were demanding that the Bill reduce the share of women8217;s seats from 33 per cent to 15, that it have reservation for OBCs and minorities too, political parties be allowed to decide which seats should be alloted to women and the Election Commission have no role in it. These were more or less the same grounds on which the Bill was stalled during Deve Gowda time as premier when the United Front introduced it.

There were at least five rounds of all-party meetings in the Speaker8217;s chambers but nothing came out of them. And after periodic doses of such demands, the day ended in the unseemly snatching of papers.

RJD member Surendra Prakash Yadav crumpled both sets of papers, hurled them in the air and set a low precedent for members8217; behaviour not seen for a long time in Parliament.

Yadav was patted on the back by both Mulayam and Laloo but he could face bad news tomorrow. The Speaker spent a great deal of time watching the video tape of the event andby late evening, he was left with two choices: suspend S P Yadav and others or refer the matter to the House Privileges Committee.

Either way, the RJD member could enter the record books by becoming a rare case of serious disciplinary action taken by a Lok Sabha Speaker. Almost ridiculously, Laloo Yadav backed his MP suggesting that Durai could have hurled the Bill himself. Durai did nothing of the kind and merely wore a hapless look as he mumbled quot;what is thisquot; as his copy of the Bill ended as a crumpled ball of male resentment.

The first signs of trouble came soon, a minute after the House assembled at 11 am. By 11.10, the first adjournment was forced and this pattern continued, at 2.06 pm, 2.32 pm, 5.03 pm and finally at 5.32 pm. Earlier at 11 am, Mulayam and Laloo led their supporters in a march from the Parliament gates to the House past the Lobby, an act Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana called quot;unprecedentedquot;.

As Khurana said that the Opposition members quot;brought the streets intoParliamentquot;, Vajpayee was even more hurt. quot;This will be remembered as a sad day in the history of the Lok Sabha. In my 40 years as a parliamentarian, there have been disagreements, dharnas and so on. But nothing like today8217;s ugly spectacle. This is a warning bell for democracy and people should take serious note of the situation,quot; he told journalists.

Agencies add: The Speaker has convened a meeting of all party leaders tomorrow morning before the House meets to decide on the introduction of the bill, even as the Government prepares to introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha tomorrow notwithstanding the opposition.

Govt for talks on OBC

quot;BJP is not anti-OBC but it is against reservation on the basis of religion,quot; Parliamentary Affairs Minister M L Khurana said. quot;We are ready to providereservation of seats for women belonging to OBC if there is a consensus on the issue.quot;