NEW DELHI, Nov 6: The Women's Reservation Bill, which had been put on the backburner, created fireworks at yesterday's meeting of the United Front's Steering Committee, with Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayanti Natarajan clashing over the desirability of getting it passed.``I'm against it, you cannot have it,'' Mulayam is believed to have thundered, when Jayanti Natarjan argued that the Government should try and get it passed even at the risk of having it defeated.If reservations are given to women,``to satyanash ho jayega'', he is learnt to have said.At this point, an incensed Jayanti shot back saying that there was no mention of ``satyanash'' when history sheeters were given tickets. If the UF was not serious about the Bill, she railed, it should be removed from the Common Minimum Programme.The Prime Minister reportedly stayed silent throughout. However, Communist leaders A B Bardhan, Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury lent their support to Natarajan.Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Sharad Yadav alluded to the need for giving reservations to the backward classes, with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu making a case for more discussion on the subject.Mulayam went on to argue against the Constitution Amendment Bill, saying his experience in Uttar Pradesh showed that only the wives, sisters and mothers of male politicians got tickets.Jayanti Natarajan promptly dismissed it saying that a large number of male MPs also owed their presence in Parliament or in the Legislatures to their relatives.Sharad Yadav then came to the Mulayam's rescue, talking about social justice and political reservation for the backward classes.An exasperated Jayanti retorted that there were around 200 OBC MPs in all the parties in the Lok Sabha, but only 37 women members. ``Who needs reservation more?'', she is understood to have asked.Mulayam expressed the fear that with the passage of the Bill, seats of senior political leaders may be used up by women.
