OBC forum demands quota in women’s Bill

Though the ruling coalition presented a badly divided front on the women’s reservation Bill, the Government — for the record at least — is not giving up on it. Later in the day, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Lok Sabha, listed it again for discussion tomorrow. Discussion on the Bill — introduced in the House in May — was listed as item number 20 in the day’s agenda for the Lok Sabha. When the House assembled this morning, some women MPs led by CPI’s Geeta Mukherjee protested against the delay in taking up the Bill. The issue came up again at the end of question hour. Mukherjee and her colleagues met their match in SP’s Pappu Yadav and like-minded members from within the UF. Law Minister Ramakant Khalap, who had moved the Bill, remained mum. When the House re-assembled after a 45-minute adjournment ordered by Deputy Speaker Suraj Bhan, the issue had not been resolved. Apart from the SP members, MPs from the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal supported the demand for an OBC and minority quota within the proposed 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislatures. The Left, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared inclined towards letting the House debate the Bill. BJP’s Jaswant Singh said his party supported the Bill and had mentioned reservation for women even in its manifesto.

Somnath Chatterjee (CPM) said the discussion on the Bill should be taken up today, even if it cannot be passed during this season. The members could talk about reservation for the OBCs and the minorities during the debate.

Santosh Mohan Deb (Congress) also harped on the divisions within the UF, and urged that the Bill be taken up for consideration. He clashed briefly with Janata Dal’s Sharad Yadav, over what had transpired during yesterday’s political leaders’ meeting over the Bill.

Virtually admitting the fissures within the UF, Sharad reminded that the constituents within a coalition can have different points of view.

In the Rajya Sabha, the UF constituents were isolated as the Congress, BJP and the Left MPs demanded an explanation from the Government on the delay in passing the Bill.

When Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Jayanthi Natarajan tried to explain that the Bill was listed for discussion in the Lok Sabha, Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla intervened to ask why it had been knocked off from the list of Rajya Sabha business.

Natarajan blamed this on “some senior leaders of the Opposition” who she said suggested that the Bill be listed in the Rajya Sabha only after the Lok Sabha passed it.

Meanwhile, the OBC Forum has suggested a Constitutional amendment to provide reservation for the OBCs, followed by a suitable amendment to the reservation Bill. It also warned the Government of “consequences” if it went ahead with the Bill in its present form.

Fifteen MPs representing the Janata Dal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samta Party, Samajwadi Party and the Telugu Desam Party participated in the forum’s meeting. The BJP and Congress members kept away from the meeting.